Winged Feet and Mute Eloquence: Dance in Seventeenth-Century Venetian Opera Author(s): Irene Alm, Wendy Heller and Rebecca Harris-Warrick Source: Cambridge Opera Journal, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Nov., 2003), pp. 216-280 Published by: Cambridge University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3878252 Accessed: 05-06-2015 15:05 UTC

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This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions CambridgeOpera Journal, 15, 3, 216-280 ( 2003 CambridgeUniversity Press DOL 10.1017/S0954586703001733 Winged feet and mute eloquence: dance in seventeenth-century Venetian opera

IRENE ALM (edited by Wendy Heller and Rebecca Harris-Warrick)

Abstract: This article shows how central dance was to the experience of opera in seventeenth-centuryVenice. The first part provides an introduction to the use of dance in Venetian opera and the primary sources - libretti, scores, treatises, and various eyewitness reports. The second section summarizes the extraordinaryvariety of subjects and style of the dances. A third section treats the musical sources, describing stylistic features of the dance music, as well as providing importantinsights as to how to identify which vocal or instrumental excerpts would likely have been danced.

Coming on to the stage, the dancer honours the public He endeavours to tell stories with his skilful hands. And now, when the pleasing retinue pours out sweet songs, Which the singer echoes, he demonstrates by dancing; He fights, plays, loves, revels as Bacchus, turns, stands, With illustration he gracefully completes the performance. The man has as many languages as limbs; Wondrous is the Art Which makes fingers silently speak.'

Of all the arts, dance is the most ephemeral. Like sculpture, dance exists in three-dimensionalspace, but it is also kinaesthetic.And while music also moves through time, dance - for the vast majorityof its history - has lacked any form of notation or written score. Time has erasedor buried so much directknowledge, thus historiansof dance are left with only scatteredfragments of documentation- names of dancers, of steps, of ballets- and the feeble power of words to capture and record the movements of bodies on the stage. As Nino Pirrottaso eloquentlywrote regardingthe commediadell'arte:

But it often happens in the history of music that the more widely diffused and popular are the facts the historian wishes to examine, the fewer precise elements of knowledge are available to him. In this case at the time of its performance everyone knew the music performed and the ways and means of its execution, but time has swallowed and buried this direct knowledge and has left us only scattered and second- or third-hand documents. We need to gather them together and laboriously interpret them to recover a pale image of a

1 'Bellissima e la descrizione fatta da un Poeta antico dell'azioni d'un Saltatore. ["Very beautiful is the description written by a poet of antiquityof the movements of a dancer":] Ingressus scenam, populos saltator adorat. / Solerti tendit prodere gesta manu. / Nam cum grata cohors diffundit cantica dulcis, / Quae resonat Cantor, motibus ipse probat; / Pugnat, ludit, amat, Baccatur,vertitur, astat, / Illustransverum cuncta decore replet. / Tot linguae quot membra viro; Mirabilisest Ars / Quae facit articulos ore silente loqui.' Andrea Perrucci, Dell'arterappresentativa premeditata, ed all'improviso(Naples, 1699), 184.

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Pirrotta's words could equally well describe the task of studying, reconstructing, and writing much of the history of dance.3 Moreover, in Western culture that which goes unrecorded has often been dismissed as of little value. Perhaps because of this, the history of dance has been a latecomer to academic and scholarly studies. Compounding the problem is a centuries-old Western tradition of viewing dance at best with suspicion and at worst as an immoral and even dangerous activity. Choreographers and dancers were rarely given the same status and respect as other artists and musicians. The treatises of the great fifteenth-century Italian dancing masters all begin with a defence of the place dance held among the arts and sciences - in essence a plea for respect. Of the many Italian cities and courts producing opera during the seventeenth century, I have chosen Venice as the focus of this study for a number of reasons. Principal among them is that, following the opening of the first commercial theatre there n 1637, an explosion of operatic activity established Venice as the leading producer of operas during the remainder of the seventeenth century. Moreover, these operas were exported to cities and courts throughout Italy and Europe. The central role of Venice in shaping and expanding this new musical-dramatic repertoire, as well as the substantial documentation of the operas performed there, make it an ideal place to begin a study of Italian theatrical dance during this period. Understanding the function and style of dance in Venetian opera is fundamental to future studies of theatrical choreography in other Italian and European cities. My aim is to provide a foundation for further research through a thorough study of the Venetian ballo.4 Even a cursory glance through the hundreds of libretti for Venetian operas shows that balli were indeed a standard feature of productions during the seventeenth century. The quantity of these dances and the diversity of their subjects provide undeniable evidence that ballet was not created and developed solely in France, but in fact has a rich history in Venice and throughout Italy. To dismiss the Venetian balli as a marginal element of Venetian opera simply because they are different from the well-documented and better-known French dances, perpetuates the false notion cultivated by French writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that ballet

2 Nino Pirrotta,'Commedia dell'Arte and Opera',Musical Quarterly, 41 (1955), 170;reprinted in Musicand Culture in Italyfrom the Middle Ages to theBaroque (Cambridge, MA, 1984), 344. 3 On the problemsof reconstructingdance - not just steps but also style- see ShirleyWynne, 'Revivingthe GestureSign: Bringing the Dance BackAlive', in TheStage and the Page: London's'Whole Show' in theEighteenth-Centu~y Theatre, ed. Geo. WinchesterStone, Jr. (Berkeley and Los Angeles,1981), 193-208, and by the sameauthor, 'Baroque Manners and Passions in ModernPerformance', in Opera&e Vivaldi, ed. MichaelCollins and Elise K. Kirk(Austin, 1984), 170-78. 4 The term'ballo' means dance in a generalsense, but is also specificallyused for the majority of theatricaldances in Venetianoperas (rather than 'balletto' or 'danza').I have not translated'ballo' as 'ballet',since that termhas specificconnotations associated with French danceand with laterstyles of theatricaldancing.

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 218 Irene Alm is entirely a French art. It also ignores the considerable influence of Italian theatrical dance on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European ballet.5 There are fundamental reasons why we know so much less about the Venetian balli during this period. These have to do with the status and position of the dancers, and the ways the opera houses were managed. Dancing in the Venetian opera house was a professional activity, and thus there was no need for the kinds of treatises and dance manuals that instructed the nobility of late Renaissance Italy or eighteenth- century France. Choreographies for the operas were probably never notated, but were most likely created and taught during rehearsals, then memorized by the corps of dancers - a practice that continues in most theatres to this day. In this sort of oral tradition (perhaps more aptly thought of as a 'physical' or 'corporeal' tradition), the repertoire, techniques, and styles were passed directly from one generation to the next. Information about the Venetian balli must thus be gleaned from a variety of sources, none of which provides the level of detail that we might desire. No dance treatise deals directly with the Venetian repertoire; the writings on theatrical aesthetics by Doni and other theorists speak only obliquely of operatic balli, focusing much of their attention on the inheritance from the ancients. Diaries, newsletters, and chronicles provide tantalizing - but often frustratingly brief - glimpses of operatic spectacle including dance. The choreographers for Venetian opera did not write treatises, but they nonetheless left a fascinating trail of evidence that also helps us to reconstruct the history of dance in Venetian opera. This is most evident in the career of Giovanni Battista Balbi (ft. 1636-57), who was involved with Venetian opera from its inception. Best known as an impresario and producer, Balbi was responsible for producing Venetian operas in such cities as Naples and Paris, and he collaborated closely with the composer Francesco Cavalli and stage designer Giacomo Torelli. The style of dancing that developed under his direction was an essential part of the production process and was widely imitated. His choreographies for the Paris production of Francesco Sacrati's Lafintapazza (1645), immortalized in a set of engravings by Valerio Spado, were particularly fanciful, incorporating monkeys, bears, ostriches, parrots, along with Indians and Turks. In the ballo for Turks, for example, the exoticism was heightened by the addition of dancing bears to the final part of the dance (see Fig. 1). A handful of other choreographers, such as Giovanni Battista Martini and Olivieri Vigasio, are identified in the surviving account books, which also provide information about

5 This skewedview of dancehistory has been perpetuatedeven by Italianhistorians. Lorenzo Tozzi, for example,begins his studyof the eighteenth-centuryItalian choreographer and dancerGasparo Angiolini with a chapteron balletfrom 1650 to 1750.Although he notes the numberof prominentItalian dancers in Franceduring this period,he discussesthe rise of professionaltheatrical dancing only in France,with no mentionof the hundredsof Venetian operas, which included balli danced by professionals. Lorenzo Tozzi, 'Breve excursus storico sulle condizioni del balletto tra il 1650 e il 1750', 1i ballettopantomimo del settecento:Gaspare Angiolini (L'Aquila, 1972), 47-53. [Ed. note: For a more balanced view of Italian dance history, see Kathleen Kuzmick Hansell, 'Theatrical Ballet and Italian Opera', in Opera on Stage, vol. 5 of The History of Italian Opera, ed. Lorenzo Bianconi and Giorgio Pestelli (Chicago, 2002), 177-308.]

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Fig. 1: Conclusion of the ballo for the Turks, with dancing bears, one of the eighteen engravingsby Valerio Spada for the balliby Balbi in La fintapazza, as it was performed in Paris in 1645. (Balletti nellaFinta di GiovanbattistaBalbi [n.p., c. 1658].) d'invenzione Pazza their relative salaries, the dances, theatres, and operas with which they are associated.6 Unlike Balbi, who was involved in all aspects of production and even wrote the dedication for the Venetian and Neapolitan editions of Veremonda di Aragona (1652/3), these choreographers were rarely identified in the Amazzonelibretti. Libretti provide the most important evidence for the extraordinary variety in subject, style, and tone that characterize the Venetian balli. Even the texts of arias and choruses may tell us something about how bodies moved on the stage. And whereas the surviving scores only inconsistently offer up music for the dance, what does exist is richly varied. Considered together, all of these sources provide us with insight into the special union of arts represented by dance on the Venetian opera stage. Indeed, an anonymous keyboard treatise ostensibly from 1664, describes the

6 Ed. note:The accountbooks were discoveredand firstdiscussed by Beth L. andJonathan Glixon,'Marco Faustini and VenetianOpera Production in the 1650s:Recent Archival Discoveries',Journal of Musicology, 10 (1992), 48-73. They will be exploredfurther in their forthcomingbook on operaproduction in mid-seventeenth-centuryVenice, which will includefurther information on the choreographers.On the choreographers,see also Alm's 'TheatricalDance in Seventeenth-CenturyVenetian Opera', Ph.D. diss. (Universityof Californiaat Los Angeles,1993), chapter5, and her article'Balbi, Giovanni Battista', The New GroveDictionary ofMusic and Musicians, 2nd edn, ed. StanleySadie and John Tyrrell (London,2000). On the engravingsassociated with Balbiand the Torelliproduction, see her 'GiovanniBattista Balbi, "Veneziano Ballerino celebre"', in GiacomoTorelli: L'invenzione scenica nell'Europabarocca, ed. FrancescoMilesi (Fano, 2000), 214-26.

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 220 Irene Alm connection of dance to the other arts, a connection mirrored in the variety of sources needed to recover its history. From what has been said above of poetry, of music, and of dance, it is evident that all three of these fine arts have a common origin, which is the imitation of beautifulnature, and they have a common goal, which is to communicate to others the ideas and the sentiments of our spiritand our heart.Therefore the peak of their graces remainsin their coming together. The masters can, however, separate these three arts, but only to cultivate and polish each one particularlywith more care. They still should never lose sight of the first law of nature, nor believe that one can exist well without the others. Nature and taste requirethat all three be always brought together. In all things there must be a common centre, and point of return, to which the most distant parts aspire. If it is poetry that produces spectacles, it is what must rule at the centre, not music and dance. They must show off more rigorouslythe ideas of sentiments alreadyexpressed in its verses. Therefore music and dance must enhance poetry, not obscure it. And this is the case with opera.7

Sources for the dance Libretti

As I noted above, the history of seventeenth-century Italian opera is to a great extent literary; libretti serve as the principal source of information about this repertoire.8 Due in part to the eighteenth-century passion for collecting, libretti survive for nearly all of the more than three hundred operas produced between 1637 and 1700 in Venice, with the vast majority printed rather than manuscript.9 Yet, surprisingly, the copious information on dance contained in the libretti has been largely overlooked, and scholars have instead based their views of dance on the music (or lack of music) in the scores, which represent only about one-third of the operas produced during this period. The libretti tell a very different story from the scores. The early librettists felt a need to defend their forays into opera, arguing for the validity of this new genre, which - although based on the principles of classical tragedy - aimed to attract and

7 Precettiragionati per apprendere l'accompagnamento delbasso sopra gli strumentida tastocome il il cembaloetc. Cod. It. IV 739 fol. 6". gravicembalo VeneziaMDCLXIIII. I-Vnm, (= 10269), [Ed.note: We are gratefulto LorenzoBianconi for pointingout that the treatiseis actually an ingeniousforgery by a late eighteenthor earlynineteenth-century music historian who supplementedhis considerableknowledge of seventeenth-centurypractices with extensive borrowingsfrom a 1775 keyboardtreatise by VicenzoManfredini. See TharaldBorgir, The Performanceof the Basso Continuo in ItalianBaroque Music (Ann Arbor, 1987), 138-40.] 8 Bianconiand Walkerpoint to this literarytradition and its effect on the historiographyof operain theirintroduction to 'Production,Consumption and PoliticalFunction of Seventeenth-CenturyOpera', Early Music History, 4 (1984), 210-15. 9 The collectionat UCLA,which includes 470 seventeenth-centuryand 816 eighteenth-century Venetianlibretti, has been used as the principalsource for this study.All referencesto librettiare basedon the copiesin this collection,unless otherwise noted. For further informationon this collection,see my Catalogof VenetianLibrettos at theUniversity of California, LosAngeles (Berkeley and Los Angeles,1993). The principallibretto collections in Venice have also been consulted:three at the BibliotecaMarciana (the CollezioneGroppo, 1637-1796;the CollezioneZeno, 1637-1750;and the CollezioneRossi, 1637-1836),the Cicognacollection at CasaGoldoni, and the Rolandicollection (not exclusivelyVenetian libretti)at the FondazioneGiorgio Cini.

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entertain contemporary audiences.10 Many of the first Venetian libretti and scenarios include lengthy prefatory essays in which the poets cite Greek and Roman sources, attempting to justify the genre or defending their concessions to modern taste - and discussing their use of dance."1 For example, the scenario for Le nozze d'Enea con Lavinia (1641) includes a preface in the form of a letter from the anonymous author to some of his friends, explaining his use of dance in place of choruses at the ends of acts.12

The chorus then was an integral part of the ancient tragedies, entering not only as a character, but singing principally between acts with gestures and leaps, and with those so-to-speak moans and howls. But in the modern [tragedies]it is a less considerablepart, being seen in some to do little more than separatethe acts. As I have introducedeven more choruses within the same acts, I therefore did not make use of them at their end; for since the entire tragedyis sung, also singing the chorus [at the end] would prove to be too tedious; thus to better satisfy the audience by means of variety, ballihave been introduced, derived in some way from the plot, just as the ancient choruses danced to song in tetrametre,a verse most appropriateto movements of the body.13

The phrase 'derived in some way from the plot' is particularly important; the librettist's aim for integration, or unity of action, is explicitly stated. In his preface to Veneregelosa (1643), the librettist Niccol6 Enea Bartolini also cites numerous classical authors to show that song and dance were essential parts of drama. Bartolini accordingly includes dancing in the final scene of Act I and in the penultimate scenes of Acts II and II1.14 Each of the three balli is accompanied by alternating solo and choral singing: Niso and a chorus of Nymphs; Trulla and a chorus of toys ('trastulli'); and a solo satyr with a chorus of satyrs. The following year, both the libretto and scenario for L'Ulisse errante(1644) contain an extensive discussion of history and aesthetics in an essay addressed to the opera's dedicatee, Michel'Angelo Torcigliani, by 'Assicurato, Academico Incognito', the academic name of the librettist Badoaro. This essay includes a briefly

10 Ellen Rosandpresents an extensivediscussion of the attemptsby librettiststo justifytheir worksby drawingupon classicalprinciples. See especiallychapter 2 of her Operain Seventeenth-CenturyVenice (Berkeley, 1991). 11 Scenariosare scene-by-scenesummaries, either printed separately or includedin the libretto itself.On the historyof the scenarioin Venice,see Ellen Rosand,'The OperaScenario, 1638-1655:A PreliminarySurvey', In Cantuet in Sermone:For Nino Pirrotta on his 80th Birthday (Florence,1989), 335-46. 12 The librettowas apparentlynever printed, but a numberof manuscriptcopies from the seventeenthand eighteenthcenturies survive. According to the manuscriptlibretto at UCLA,Le nozzed'Enea con Lavinia was writtenby GiacomoBadoaro, although his authorshiphas been seriouslyquestioned by ThomasWalker; see 'Gli erroridi Minervaal tavolino:Osservazioni sulla cronologia delle prime opere veneziane', in Veneziae il melodramma nelseicento, ed. MariaTeresa Muraro (Florence, 1976), 11-12. The printedscenario, which bearsthe titleArgomento et scenario delle noze d'Eneain Lavinia,is not foundin the collection of librettiat UCLA.I wouldlike to thankEllen Rosandfor sendingme copies of the relevantsections from the scenario.See her commentson the extantexamples, in 'The OperaScenario', 344. 13 Argomentoet scenario delle d'Eneain Lavinia,21. 14 Two additional ballifor nozzeVenere gelosa are documented in the Apparatisceniciper lo Teatro Novissimodi Venetianell'anno 1644 d'inventione e cura di lacomoTorelli da Fano (Venice, 1644).

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 222 Irene Alm summarized history of tragedy, and also mentions the practice of substituting balli for choruses:

The precepts of poetry are not permanent, because the changes of centuries give birth to the diversityof composition; so that although in its earliestdays, Tragedywas recited by the poet alone, his face tinted with the dregs of crushed grapes, later charactersand masks were introduced,then they added choruses, music, instruments,scene changes, [and]balli in place of choruses - and perhapsin the future as times change our descendantswill see new forms introduced.15

But most importantly, the descriptions of the balli in the libretti provide an invaluable documentation about the use of dance in Venetian opera. Table 1 (see Appendix), organized by theatre and year, shows the number of balli in each opera. Table 2 (see Appendix) analyzes by decade the percentage of seventeenth-century Venetian operas that include balli. Approximately 660 balli appear in the 346 seventeenth-century operas. Most of these operas are in three acts, and incorporate two balli, one to end each of the first two acts.16 Yet libretti, often printed in haste, do not always tell the full story about balli. Supplemental information can sometimes be found in scenarios, aggiunte(printed leaflets of additions and other changes or corrections), or second editions.17 In the case of Giovanni Faustini's L'Eritrea performed at S. Apollinare in 1652, for example, no balli are listed in the libretto, but two are specified in the separately printed scenario and are confirmed in the account books.18 Occasionally, second editions of libretti give new information about dances or clarify their location. For example, the first edition of I re infante(1683) lists three balli,19but only gives the location of the third, in the opera's finale. According to the second edition, issued midway through its run, the first ballo, danced by pages with torches, occurs at the end of Act I; the second, changed to a 'popular battle' in the

15 Badoaro,L'Ulisse 11. 16 errante, Five-actstructure was used in only a half-dozenoperas between 1640 and 1644,but was revivedat the end of the century.Seven operas(8.2 per cent) duringthe mid-1690sand anotherfifteen operas (15.8 per cent) between1701 and 1710 arein five acts (see the operasindicated by asteriskin TableI). The librettistGirolamo Frigimelica Roberti favouredthis structure,and typicallycloses each act with an elaboratechoral scene with ballior the acts with thatinclude dance. a five-actstructure separates intramezzi Although easilyallowed for the inclusionof more balli,high numbersof balliare also foundin three-actoperas. Several of the earliestthree-act operas have threeor four balli;many operasfrom the 1680s and 1690shave four or five;and, in fact, the two operasthat includesix balliare in threeacts. 17 The statistics on balli in the tables reflect only those scenarios, aggiunte,and second editions found in the collection of libretti at UCLA. 18 Ed. note: On the account books, see Alm's 'TheatricalDance in Seventeenth-Century VenetianOpera', chapter 4. Sincescenarios do not survivein largenumbers - Rosand('The OperaScenario', see n.11l)lists nineteenscenarios between the years1639 and 1655- it is difficultto speculateas to whetherany of the otheroperas lacking mention of balliin their librettiactually included dances in performance. 19 'Ballo di Paggi con Torci', 'Ballo di maschere con archi', and 'Ballo di Damme e fanciulli'.

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Winged feet and mute eloquence 223 style of the traditional guerra de'pugni, takes place at the end of Act II1.20In other cases the subject of a ballois altered more radically. In La schiavafortunata(1674) by Moniglia and Corradi, for example, the ending of Act II changes from a ballo for naiads who emerge from tigers to a less spectacular, more commonplace dance by satyrs and shepherdesses - a change that may have been made for financial reasons. In addition to financial exigencies, these editions may reflect last-minute changes made after the libretto went to press, perhaps stemming from production problems with sets, costumes, or personnel. In some second editions, dances were added or cut. Other sources confirm that the statistics based on libretti may provide at best a conservative estimate of the number of balli performed in Venetian operas. For example, Niccol6 Enea Bartolini's libretto for Veneregelosa (1643) lists three balli, performed in the final scene of Act I and the penultimate scenes of Acts II and III. The set of engravings entitled Apparati sceniciperlo TeatroNovissimo by the renowned stage designer Giacomo Torelli documents two additional balli for this opera.21 The libretto includes a prologue sung by Flora who emerges from the earth and is carried through the air by Zephyrs. The Apparati scenici,however, provides more detail: 'The Chorus of Nymphs, who with movement of their feet, now fast and now slow, performed a most beautiful dance to the singular delight of the spectators. Thus began the performance of the opera.'22 Dances may also have been routinely performed whenever the sung verses mention dance, even if the standard phrase 'Segue il ballo' was not printed in the libretto. If this is so, then the statistics cited in Tables 1 and 2 would be even higher. By the 1660s and 1670s, the placement of balli at the ends of Acts I and II had become a standard feature of Venetian opera.23 About a quarter of the balli that end internal acts actually take place within the closing scene; in the remainder, the ballo is literally the last event of the act, with the ubiquitous 'segue il ballo' printed immediately before or after 'Fine dell'Atto'. By contrast, the majority of balli that serve as finales to whole operas take place earlier within the closing scene (in 63.6 per cent, or twenty-one of the thirty-three finales). Five of the twenty-five balli

20 'Trombeal suono de le qualiinvezze di ballo seguealla vista di ErgistoBattaglia Popolare.' The guerrade' pugni, also calledthe forze d'Ercole, was a traditionalVenetian entertainment in whichmock battleswere foughtby residentsof two differentsestieri, or neighbourhoods,on the bridgesof the city.Chassebras de Cramaillesgives a detailedaccount of I1ri infantein the Mercuregalant (March 1683), 256-71. He later(297-300) describesthe additions,which includedsix elephantsbearing a machine,the 140 people engagedin the mock battle,and a giantturtle that breaksinto sixtyor seventypieces used by the soldiersas shields.In the next issue (April1683, 71-8), he explainsthat duringthe last daysof Carnivalthe Grimani had the Castellaniand the Nicolottistage the battleon the bridgein earnest(resulting in bloodshed),in orderto show the foreignershow the guerrade' pugni was fought. 21 The numbersgiven in the tablesare basedsolely on the collectionat UCLAand therefore do not includethese extraballi. For furtherinformation on Torelliand reproductionsof some of these designs,see Per Bjurstrom,Giacomo Torelli and Baroque Stage Design (Stockholm,1961). See also Rosand,Opera in Seventeenth-Centu~yVenice, 91-109. 22Apparati scenici, 8. [Ed.note: See also WendyHeller, 'Dancing Desire on the VenetianStage' in this issue.] 23 For tablesdetailing the frequencyand locationof the balliby decade, see Alm, 'Theatrical Dance' (see n.6), 277-78.

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 224 Irene Alm labelled intermedialso occur within a closing scene rather than in independent intermedi.24For example, in the libretto for Amore innamorato(1642) by Giovanni Battista Fusconi and Pietro Michiel, the final scenes of Acts I to IV contain balli;the scenario states, however, that these scenes serve as intermedifor the opera. Thus, the hundreds of seventeenth-century libretti reveal the indisputable and ubiquitous presence of balli in Venetian opera. From the premiere of Andromedain 1637 through the hundreds of operas that followed in Venetian theatres over the course of the century, theatrical dance held an important place among the ingredients essential to creating the Baroque spectacle. Moreover, the extensiveness of the literary record makes it possible to chart the use and placement of theatrical dances over the course of the century.

Scores

In contrast to the virtually complete documentation for libretti, scores survive for only about one-third of seventeenth-century Venetian operas. Whereas the libretti were usually printed in quantity and sold to the public, the scores for these operas were never printed - all of the surviving scores are in manuscript. Occasionally a noble patron must have commissioned a score, for some of the extant manuscripts are clearly presentation copies, but commercial opera in Venice had little need for the elegant documentation associated with court opera. Many of the manuscripts are obviously working scores, with passages glued or sewn in, and indications of transpositions and cuts. Opera scores usually became the property of the theatre management, and once a score no longer had commercial value, there was little reason to preserve it. Occasionally scores were adapted for revivals in Venice or in other cities; thus, while some of the surviving scores closely match Venetian libretti, others show varying degrees of revision. The largest group of these scores belonged to a single collector, Marco Contarini, and is now housed at the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice.25 Among this relatively small number of surviving scores, somewhat less than half include music unambiguously intended for dancing (see Tables 3 and 4 below). However, often the verses that introduce the dancing are set in the score, so originally the ballo must have followed,26 and still other scores include vocal music that may have been danced. Nonetheless, the apparent lack of dance music in some of these scores has spawned two assumptions on the part of many scholars: first,

24 The seventeenth-centuryintermedio or intermezzo is quite different from the comic which,with its was an eighteenth-century intermezzo, independentplot, outgrowth primarilyof the comic scenesrather than of the intermediand dancesof seventeenth-century opera.See CharlesE. Troy, TheComic Intermezzo: A Study in theHistory of Eighteenth-Century ItalianOpera (Ann Arbor,MI, 1979), especiallychapter 1, 'Originsand EarlyStages'. 25 This collectionis discussedby GiovanniMorelli and ThomasWalker, 'Migliori plettri', in AurelioAureli and FrancescoLucio, II Medoro,ed. Morelliand Walker,in Drammaturgia MusicaleVeneta 4 (Milan,1986), CXLI-CXLVII. 26 Scoreswith versesintroducing balli include Artemesia (1656), II Medoro(1658), L'Ofeo (1673), and manyothers. [Ed. note: For a completeconcordance of identifiabledances in Venetianoperas, listing all mentionsof dancein eitherscore or libretto,see Aim, 'TheatricalDance' (n.6),Appendix III, 320-63.]

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Winged feet and mute eloquence 225 that the balliwere not actually performed or were optional; and second, that another, 'inferior', composer wrote the dance music. There is considerable evidence to contradict the first premise: account books and reviews of performances confirm that balli were regularly performed.27 The absence of dance music in many manuscripts most likely stems from the practical circumstances of rehearsals, which at least some of the time took place apart from the opera and thus would necessitate separate scores.28 Moreover, letters and contracts between agents, impresarios, composers, and singers reveal that Venetian operas were often prepared under severe time constraints, so that rehearsals usually began before the score was completed.29 Working scores often lack not only the dance music, but also instrumental obbligati,ritornelli, and even texts for arias. If the copyist did not have access to the separate folios of dance music, it could not be included, even in presentation scores. The second notion - that another composer (usually characterized as 'lesser' or 'second rate') might have been responsible for the dance music -is also often contradicted by the surviving evidence. For example, many of these scores were copied by several different people, yet in only one, the Venetian copy of Cavalli's Xerse (1654), are the dances in a different hand than the music immediately preceding it. These particular bass lines seem to have been hastily copied into the full score, perhaps as cues, but that fact alone does not provide sufficient evidence to determine whether the dances were by Cavalli or by someone else. Furthermore, many of the balli in the earliest scores for Venetian operas are woven into the fabric of a scene and are without question by the principal composer of the opera.30 The only scores in which ballo music is known to be by a different composer are those used for productions of Venetian operas in other cities. Since Venice provided a substantial portion of the repertoire for many other Italian cities and courts during the seventeenth century, a different composer might adapt the opera for its new context. For example, the poet Giovanni Filippo Apolloni and the composer Alessandro Stradella supplied prologues and intermezzi for several out-of-town productions of Venetian operas, including revivals of Cavalli's Giasone(as 1/ novello Giasone) and Scipioneafricano at the Teatro Tordinona in Rome in 1671.31 In both of these, Stradella's dance music is strikingly different, both in terms of length and elaborate repetition schemes, and he also relies upon standard social dances which,

27 Ed. note: See Alm, 'TheatricalDance', chapter 4, especiallyTables Va and Vb, 281-83, which show expenserecords for the dancesin Venetianopera houses. 28 Ed. note:Alm cites a descriptionof a dancerehearsal held at a privatehome, reportedin the travelmemoirs of AbbhAntonio Olivieri. See Alm, 'TheatricalDance', 149-53. 29 See, for example, Bruno Brunelli, 'L'impressarioin angustie', Rivistaitaliana del dramma,3 (1941), 311-41, and CarlSchmidt, 'An Episodein the Historyof VenetianOpera: The Tito Commission(1665-66)', Journal of theAmerican Musicological Society, 31 (1978), 422-66. 30 See, for example, the extended dance scenes in Cavalli'sLe nozgedi Tetie di Peleo(1639) discussedbelow (265-68). 31 See OwenJander, 'The Prologuesand Intermezzosof AlessandroStradella', Analecta musicologica,7 (1969), 87-111.

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 226 Irene Aim as we shall see below, were used infrequentlyin Venetian opera.32Similarly, it was Lully who supplied ballets for Cavalli'soperas Xerse and Ercoleamante when they were performed in Paris in 1660 and 1662. It seems dangerous to extrapolatefrom practices in other cities or courts to the commercialopera houses in Venice. For example, although there was a traditionof hiring a ballet composer at the courts in Turin and in Vienna duringthe seventeenth century,in Venice no payments to a composer for ballihave been found among the survivingaccount books.33 Nor can eighteenth-centuryVenetian practicebe used as a basis for seventeenth-centurypractice in the same city, since the role of dance in opera changed substantially after the turn of the century. Balli became more independent in the eighteenth century,with plots entirelyseparate from the opera.34 In the seventeenth century, however, when the balliwere more closely integrated with the operas, it cannot be assumed that the dance music was by a separate composer. Since the survivingscores served a varietyof purposes (some being presentation scores, others working scores, others for non-Venetian revivals) and they represent less than half of the repertoire, it is impossible to determine whether certain

32 The score for the Venetian production of Giasone(1649) does not contain instrumental music for the ballofor spirits that ends the spectacularincantation scene in Act I, or for the dance for sailors at the end of Act II. For the Roman production, however, Stradella omitted a full intermezzoafter Medea's powerful invocation of the spirits at the close of Act I in Giasone,replacing it instead with two alternatingdances: 'Sarabande/ Balletto for the Furies / When the Balletto has finished, da capo to the Sarabandetwo more times, and then the Balletto another time, and then da capo to the Sarabandeuntil they have mounted the horses' (I-Sc L.V.33, fol. 102r-). After Act II, an intermediofor Satiro and Amore ends with a 'Balletto d'Amorini' in three sections, 'Balletto / Sarabanda/ Presto', i.e., essentially a suite of three dances: a promenade-style entry in common time, a sarabande,and a gigue. Stradellaused a similar approach to dance music for the Roman revival of Scipioneaffricano in 1671. His first intermediocontains a dance for the cyclops, consisting of a 'Presto' in compound metre, a 'Balletto' in common time, an 'Adagio' in common time, and a da capo of the 'Presto'. The second intermedioincludes a ballowith sections for Spanish, French, German, and Italian dancers, in various dance rhythms, followed by a sarabandewith sections in alternatingtempos. The score for the Roman production also contains new music for the games of the gladiatorsin Act I, scene 2. Once again this takes the form of a suite. 33 For Turin and the La Pierre dynasty of ballet composers, see Marie-ThbrbseBouquet, Musiqueet musiciensa Turinde 1648 a 1775 (Turin, 1969), the same author's II teatrodi corte dalleorigini al 1788 (Turin, 1976), and Mercedes Viale Ferrero, 'Repliche a Torino di alcuni melodrammi veneziani e loro caratteristiche',in Veneziae il melodrammanel seicento,ed. Maria Teresa Muraro (Florence, 1976), 145-72. In Vienna, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer and his eldest son Andreas Anton Schmelzer served as ballet composers for Leopold I, and collaborated on many of the Minato-Draghioperas. See Egon Wellesz, Die Ballett-Suitenvon JohannHeinrich und Anton Andreas and Paul Nettl, 'Die Wiener Schmelzer(Vienna, 1914) in der des Tanzkomposition zweiten Hialfte siebzehnten Jahrhunderts', Studien zur Musikwissenschaft,8 (1921), 45-175. Among other ballet composers in Vienna are Wolfgang Ebner, J. J. Hoffer, and Nicola Matteis. See Herbert Seifert, Die Operamnt Wiener Kaiserhof inm 17. Jahrhundert(Tutzing, 1985), and Andrew D. McCredie, 'Nicola Matteis, the Younger: Caldara'sCollaborator and Ballet Composer in the Service of the Emperor, Charles VI', in AntonioCaldara: Essays on his Life and Times,ed. Brian W. Pritchard(Aldershot, 1987), 153-82. 34 Ed. note: see Hansell, 'TheatricalBallet' (n.5).

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composers were more concerned with dance music than others. Indeed, it was probably the librettist, or perhaps the impresario, who determined the number, placement, and subjects of the balli. Yet several composers are well represented among these scores, and a few general observations about composers and dance music can be made in a brief chronological survey of the sources.

1637-1660

Twenty-five scores survive from these first decades of Venetian opera, in contrast to libretti for seventy-six works. Nineteen of these scores are by Francesco Cavalli, who dominated the early decades of commercial opera.35 More of his operas (twenty-two) were performed in Venice during the 1640s and 1650s than of any other composer and scores survive for all but three of them.36 The remaining scores are by Claudio Monteverdi,37 Francesco Sacrati,38 Antonio Cesti, Pietro Andrea Ziani, and Francesco Lucio. Five of these are for works that apparently did not use balli (none is listed in the libretti), and another five omit or change the verses that would have introduced the dances. Seven contain music clearly intended for the balli, and eight others have verses introducing the dances or choruses that may have been danced (see Table 3 for details). Cavalli's first opera, Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo (1639) contains a substantial amount of dance music ranging from short instrumental pieces to extensive choreographed scenes involving solo singers, chorus, and instruments. The thorough integration of the dances into several scenes of this opera sets it apart from the works that follow; in fact, danced scenes of this length do not reappear until the ballroom scenes of the 1670s and 1680s. By contrast, Cavalli's Gli amori d'Apollo e di Dafne (1640) and La virtZde' stralid'Amore (1642) contain only brief instrumental dance music and one longer danced chorus. Cesti's Alessandrovincitor di se stesso(1651) also includes a more extensive chorus to accompany a ballo.

35 Manyof Cavalli'soperas were also centralto the disseminationof Venetianopera throughoutItaly, enjoying numerous performances in othercities. On Cavalli,see Lorenzo 'Caletti, PietroFrancesco, detto Cavalli',in degli Bianconi, (Caletti-Bruni), Dizionariobiografico italiani(Rome, 1973),vol. 16, 686-96;Jane Glover,Cavalli (New York,1978); and Thomas Walkerand IreneAlm, 'Cavalli,Francesco', in TheNew GroveDictionary ofMusic and Musicians,2nd edn, ed. Sadieand Tyrrell. 36 The Contarinicollection contains copies of all of Cavalli'sextant operas, and additional copies of a half-dozenoperas survive elsewhere. Amore innamorato (1642), I Titone(1645), andAntioco (1659) lack scores.Cavalli's last two operasCoriolano for Piacenza(May 1669) andMassenzio (composed for S. Salvatore1673, but neverperformed), are also lost, and ten operasconsidered doubtful attributions lack scores. 37 Unfortunately,no score survivesfor Le nozzed'Enea con Lavinia (1641), the operaby Monteverdiwith the greatestamount of danceindicated in the libretto.Of his two Venetianoperas that do survive,1 ritornod'Ulisse in patria (1640) containsonly one ballo, which the score omits,and L'incoronationedi Poppea (1643) containsno balliin eitherlibretto or score. 38 The score for Sacrati'sLa finta shouldsoon be availablein a facsimileedition with criticalcommentary by LorenzopazaBianconi, as volume 1 of the seriesDrammaturgia musicale veneta.I wouldlike to thankEllen Rosandfor allowingme to consulther copyflowof the score.There are substantialdifferences with the Venetianlibretto and neitherdance scene is included.

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Although many of the scores from the 1650s lack dance music, Marco Faustini's account books for S. Apollinare and S. Cassiano show that balli were indeed performedin severalof Cavalli'soperas, as well as in Pietro Andrea Ziani'sLefortune di Rodopee Damira(1657)." The scores for Cavalli'sLa Rosinda(1651), Veremonda di and Elena contain choruses that have Amazzone Aragona(1652/3), (1660) may accompanied the balli,or may have simply introduced instrumentaldance music. Instrumentscould have repeated the choral music, or contrastingdance music may have followed. Since these balliall occur at the ends of acts, it would have been easy to keep instrumentaldance music in a separate score. In general, the scores from these first two and a half decades of Venetian opera show a trend away from Cavalli's early use of elaborate choral dance music, reminiscentof the late Renaissanceintermedi. As ballibecome a conventional means of closing the first two acts, shorter instrumental dance pieces, occasionally introduced by a chorus, are favoured.

1661-1680

Libretti show the 1660s and 1670s to have been decades of conformity in many ways for Venetian opera. Of the one hundred operas from these two decades, ninety-eight contain balli (usually to close Acts I and II). Scores survive for sixty-three of these one hundred operas, including works not only by Cavalli and Cesti, but also Pietro Andrea Ziani, Antonio Sartorio, and Giovanni Antonio Boretti, several of whom became 'house composers' at particulartheatres.40 Of the sixty-threescores, twenty-seven contain ballomusic and another thirty-twoinclude some or all of the verses that introduce the balli.Approximately two-thirds of the balli in these scores are instrumental pieces, with binary form and duple metre increasingly favoured in the 1670s. A few choral accompaniments for balli still appearand some pieces alternatesolo and chorus, but in the vocal pieces connected with ballithere is a greateremphasis on solo voices.41The first social dance scenes also appearduring this period. In Seleuco(1666) and Galieno(1676), these scenes are composed as conversations during a ball, with instruments supplying continuous dance music in the background.

1681-1690

After two decades of relative conformity, composers began to explore new styles during the 1680s. Balli remained a mainstay of productions, however, and are

" See Beth L. and Jonathan Glixon, 'Marco Faustini and Venetian Opera Production in the 1650s' (n.6). 40 Antonio Sartorio dominated at S. Salvatore, Carlo Pallavicino at the two Grimani theatres (SS. Giovanni e Paolo, and, after it opened in 1678, S. Giovanni Grisostomo), and Domenico Freschi at S. Angelo (which opened in 1677). Boretti and Pietro Andrea Ziani continued to be active during the first part of the decade, and newcomers included Giovanni Legrenzi and Ziani's nephew Marc'Antonio. 41 For example, in L'Argia (1669), Alceo sings an aria accompanied by instruments that is danced by a chorus of slaves, and in Massenzio(1673) a chorus of sailors dances to an aria sung by one of the sailors.

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Winged feet and mute eloquence 229 indicated in the libretti for seventy of the eighty-five operas during this decade. Scores survive for only seventeen of these works: five are by Domenico Gabrielli, three by Pallavicino and three by Freschi, with a number of other composers represented by one score apiece. Nine scores contain ballo music, even though for two of these - Rodoaldo re d'Italia (1685) and Le generosegare tra Cesare e Pompeo (1686), both by Gabrielli - the libretti fail to mention balli.These dances and several others from this decade are notated only by a bass line. Ballroom scenes were extremely popular, appearing in five scores. Most of these scenes weave together both vocal and instrumental music to accompany the dance. At the end of the decade, Giuseppe Felice Tosi's Amulio e Numitore (1689) is exceptionally rich in instrumental dance music.

1691-1700

During the final decade of the century, libretti for eighty of the eighty-seven operas mention balli. Only thirteen operas have extant scores and nine of these contain dance music.42 Ten of the scores are by Carlo Francesco Pollarolo, who dominated Venetian opera in the 1690s, much as Cavalli had earlier in the century.43 The balli in his works are also significantly longer, especially those for the and the intramezzi final choral scenes of Frigimelica Roberti's neo-classical libretti, Ilpastor d'Anfriso (1695) and Rosimonda(autumn 1695).44 Their interweaving of vocal music with instrumental pieces may exhibit French influence. Surprisingly, there are no extant scores by Pollarolo's leading rival, Marc'Antonio Ziani, who wrote eighteen operas during this decade, principally for S. Angelo and S. Salvatore.45 The majority of Giacomo Perti's operas were written for cities other than Venice, but scores for two of his Venetian operas from this decade survive, Furio Camillo (1692) and Nerone fatto Cesare(1693), and both contain balli.Although Perti's instrumental dance music is not nearly as elaborate as Pollarolo's balli, French influence is also seen in his use of a 'Borea' (bourree) and a 'Rigadon' (rigaudon) in NeronefattoCesare.

Choreographic sources

The late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries saw a flowering of Italian treatises on dance, the most important of which were those by Fabrizio Caroso and Cesare 42 Two other survivingscores do not matchVenetian productions. 43 Thereare twenty-sixoperas for Venetiantheatres attributed solely to Pollarolo,as well as two collaborations.Pollarolo has been creditedwith expandingthe dimensionsof the aria and increasingthe use of instrumentalaccompaniment. On Pollarolo,see OlgaTermini, 'CarloFrancesco Pollarolo: His Life, Time, and Musicwith Emphasison the Operas', Ph.D. diss. (Universityof SouthernCalifornia, 1970), and by the same author'Carlo Francesco Pollarolo: Follower or Leader in Venetian Opera?' Studi musicali, 7 (1979), 223-72 and 'Pollarolo, Carlo Francesco', New GroveDictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edn, ed. Sadie and Tyrrell. 44 See examples 88-97 in Alm, 'Theatrical Dance'. Not all of Pollarolo's extant scores for libretti by Frigimelica Roberti include the intermediomusic: Ottone (1694) and Irene (1695) lack these pieces. There is no evidence, however, that they were by another composer. 45 Ziani's first seven operas (to 1685) survive, but full scores for all the operas that he composed from that time until his move to Vienna in 1700 are lost.

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Negri.46 However, these manuals are predominantly concerned with social dances performed by the nobility, despite the presence of plots or dramatic subjects in a few.47 Caroso's Nobilta di dame (1600) was reprinted at least as late as 1630, and some of the dances for which he left choreographies may have been used in Venetian balli, perhaps as late as mid-century. Nonetheless, already in 1620 Alessandri da Narni wrote, 'I think that if Prospero Lutij, Fabritio Caroso, and Cesare Negri were alive at this time, they would not use many of the dances, passeggi, and variations that we see in their writings. Therefore it does not seem right to me, that we imitate them.'48 Atypically for the period, the anonymous treatise II corago, likely written between 1628 and 1637, does deal with dance in the context of theatrical music. The coragowas roughly equivalent to a combination stage manager and director, and the treatise provides much valuable information about opera, devoting several chapters to dance - although, once again, in a courtly context.49 Overall, then, we are left with a situation in which the best-known manuals from the earlier part of the century have only limited applicability to Venetian opera, and are followed by nearly a century of virtual silence from Italian choreographers and ballet masters.

46 Ed. note: For furtherdiscussion of the varioustreatises that inform our understandingof Venetiandance, see Alm, 'TheatricalDance', chapter 1, 1-34. Both Caroso'sNobilta di dame and the earliertreatise on whichit was based,II ballarino,are availablein facsimile:II ballarino(Venice, 1581; rpt. New York, 1967) and Nobiltadi dame(Venice, 1600, 1605;rpt. Bologna,1970). See alsoJulia Sutton's translation and edition,Nobilta di Dame:A Treatiseon CourtlyDance, Together with the Choreography andMusic of 49 Dances(Oxford, 1986; rpt. New York, 1995). Negri'sLe gratied'amore (Milan, 1602), is availablein two facsimilereprints (Bologna,1969, and New York, 1969). In additionto the reissueas Nuoveinvenzioni di balli (Milan,1604), thereis a 1630 manuscripttranslation into Spanishby Don BalthasarCarlos for SefiorConde, Duke of St. Lucar(E-Mn, MS 14085).See also YvonneKendall, 'Le gratied'amore 1602 by CesareNegri: Translation and Commentary',DMA diss. (Stanford University,1985). GiovanniBattista Doni's Trattatodella musica scenica (1640; published in LyraBarberina II [Florence,1768; rpt. Bologna, 1974]), while not a dancemanual, is also importantto an understandingof theatricaldance during the firstdecades of the seventeenthcentury and the relationshipof modernpractice to the writingsof the ancients. See especiallychapters XXXI-XL, and in the 'Appendicea Trattatidi Musica:Musica Scenica,Parte I', chaptersXIX-XXVI. For a more extensivediscussion of the classical dances,see IreneAlm, 'Humanismand TheatricalDance in EarlyOpera', Musica Disciplina, 49 (1995), 79-93. 47 Some of Negri'schoreographies designed for spectaclesare analyzedby PamelaJones, 'Spectaclein Milan:Cesare Negri's Torch Dances', Early Music, 14 (1986), 182-96. 48 Alessandrida Narni,Discoroso sopra il ballo(1620), 54; the Italianis transcribedin Julia Sutton'spreface to her editionof Caroso'sNobilta di dame,19. One must keep in mind that these treatiseswere addressed- for the most part- to noble amateurs,albeit skilled and practiseddancers, who performedbefore an audienceof theirpeers. 49 Ed. note:I1 corago was perhapswritten by PierfrancescoRinuccini (1592-1657), son of the librettistOttavio Rinuccini. The termcorago itself is derivedfrom the GreekXoprlyoo (choregus,or one who leadsthe chorus);regarding the dutiesof the position,see the introductionto the modernedition by Paolo Fabbriand AngeloPompilio, I coragoo vero alcuneosservaTZioni permetter bene in scenale composiTzionidrammatiche (Florence, 1983), 8-10, as well as RogerSavage and MatteoSansone, 'll Coragoand the Stagingof EarlyOpera: Four Chaptersfrom an AnonymousTreatise circa 1630', Ear~y Music, 17 (1989), 495-99. Chapter XVII addressesthe role of the coragoin arrangingthe choreographyfor the chorus,with more specificinformation on dancesin chapterXVIII, with referenceto the practiceof the ancients.

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By the early eighteenth century, however, some writers had begun to provide more detailed descriptions of balli. In 1704 Vincenzo Coronelli published a surprisingly technical summary of current dances.

Yet our ballihave diverse names, like the Moresca,the Passoe mezzo,the Cinquepassi,the Sette passi, the Saltarello,the Gagliarda,the Corrente,etc., and those from various places like the Francese,the Spagnuola,the Fiorentina,the Berganmesca,the Pavana,the Veneziana,the Furlana, the Siciliana,the Romana,the Canaria,etc. In our balli,three things especiallyconverge, which are Passo,Salto, and Capriola:the Passois divided into several types, which are coupior step, balanced step, joined step, split, beaten, etc. The Saltois divided into the leap forward, backward,turning, to the side, and many others. The Capriolais of various types, which are the simple caper, and cross cut, half caper, the caper cut up to the number eight, so that among the professors of ballo,they speak of doing a quadruple,quintuple, or sextuple caper, and it is used by Balleriniwith other terms, and especially with French terms, from which nation for the most part are wont to come new styles and inventions of ballito our Italy.50

Coronelli's nod to French influence at the end of this passage is doubtless a reflection of the flood of French treatises and choreographies in print since 1700, beginning with Feuillet's Choregraphie.51Of the Italian dance types he mentions, several of which date at least as far back as Caroso and Negri, only the corrente, canario,and passo e mezzo appear in libretto verses, and these only occasionally. (As we shall see, standard social dances such as the sarabandaand ciacconaappear only in ballroom scenes.) However, as the prominence given to the capriolain this passage suggests, Italian dancing was known for its athleticism. Italians had used the capriola- a jump in which the dancer crossed or beat his legs in the air and which existed in many variants (see Fig. 2) - in theatrical dances at least as early as 1637, as shown in Stefano della Bella's engravings of Le nozze deglidei, a favola with music performed in Florence for the wedding of Ferdinando II de' Medici and Vittoria della Rovere.52 Capriole also figure prominently in Gregorio Lambranzi's Neue und curieuse theatralischeTantzschul (Nuremberg, 1716), the only substantial source for Italian theatrical dance practices published in the early eighteenth century.53 The work consists of 101 engravings illustrating one or more dancers on stage; each plate includes a melody at the top of the page and a caption at the bottom describing the

50 VincenzoCoronelli, Biblioteca universale sacro-profana antico-moderna, vol. 5 (Venice,1704), col. 225. 51 Ed. note: For informationregarding the choreographiesin Feuilletnotation, see Meredith Ellis Littleand CarolG. Marsh,La DanseNoble: An InventoryofDances and Sources (Williamstown,1992). 52 Della Bella'sengravings show GiulioParigi's designs for Le nozzedegli dei, which had music by five composersto a librettoby C. Coppola.The engravingwith the caprioleis reproduced in a numberof sourcesincluding Cesare Molinari, Le nozgedegli ddi: un saggio sulgrande spettacoloitaliano nel seicento (Rome, 1968), plate66. 53 The originalpublication (Niirnberg, 1716) is in both Germanand Italian.It has been translatedfrom the Germanby FridericaDerra de Morodaas New andCurious School of TheatricalDancing, ed. CyrilW. Beaumont(New York,1966). Derrade Morodahas also publisheda facsimileof Lambranzi'soriginal drawings, New andCurious School of Theatrical Dancingby Gregorio Lambranzi. A Facsimileof theOriginal in theBavarian State Library (New York,1972).

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ASSAI BEN BALLA.A CVI FORTVNA SVONA

Gefuu. 6 barro, o irosalleu in alto Chi concordea rumO pa.si hd /a Fortuna, Che .aro. in tempo e la caden(.,e t'Palto.

Fig. 2: Dancerperforming a capriola.(Mitelli, Proverbi figurati, 1678.) subject, action and style of movement. It includes dances by peasants, a drunken couple, a satyr,buffoons, Turks (see Fig. 3), Moors, and prisonersin chains, among many other charactertypes. The connection of Lambranzi'sstyle with that used in the Venetian opera houses is only speculative. However, a number of Lambranzi'sfigures are so strikingly similar to the subjects and descriptions of the balli in the libretti, that it seems reasonableto bear Lambranzi'sillustrations in mind as we read the descriptions of dancing in the literarysources. For it turns out that the libretti themselves provide usable choreographicinformation - not just about styles of dancing,but even about specific movements. Many of the choreographicdescriptions found in librettiillustrate the same kind of athleticismsuggested by Lambranzi- what we might characterizeas the 'bravura' style: leaps and jumps (salti), speed, turns, and agility. Salti appear in all styles of dances, performed by every type of character.For example, in Act V of L'Adone

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Aw, $fAk& mWernacX f wit tzuztre~z Ae~rknrw ;Sr mil,- hauz Slg •,Aatiesy p a; ri bi m4

Fig. 3: "FourTurks enter, one after the other, and dancewith joinedhands as shown; backwards,forwards, and to rightand left, with ballonnesand other suitablepas. The airis playedthree times."(Lambranzi, Neue und curieuse theatralische Tantz-Schul [1716], Book II, plate38.)

(1640), four dancers costumed as a lion, a tiger, a bear, and a boar enter leaping to begin the ballo.A very different setting is the sombre, penitentialdance of suffering ('Ballo di Sofferenza') in La finta pazza (1641). Here Giunone sings, 'Begin the dance, strong boys', and Minervachimes in, 'Yes, yes, begin the Greek custom, and

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 234 IreneAlm while your foot leaps, sound the whip.'54 Two operas, L'Orontea(1666) and L'Alciade (1667), even have balli specifically designated for saltatori,probably indicatingtumblers or acrobats,rather than simply jumpers.Moreover, contraryto frequent assumptions about dance in this period, salti were not exclusively performed by male dancers. For example, the stage directions for L'Andromeda (1637) tell us that the 'leaping labyrinth'was danced by six ladies. In Gli amord d'Apolloe di Dafne (1640), the chorus sings 'Dance and leap / Women and men.'"5 The libretti use the term girl in two ways in regardto the balli.Galatea tells the nymphs in L'Ulisseerrante (1644) to dance with flickeringfeet, leap, and turn, thus suggestingthat they turn or twirlin one place.56In MartioCoriolano (1683), Vendetta (Vengeance) instructsher ministers to do 'a hundredplus a hundred'turns in their balloand 'in front of a dying Rome trace garlandsin my hair'. In ballroom scenes, the terms gimior in gii were also used to mean circling or taking a turn around the room. In Falaridetiranno d'Agrigento (1684), the stage directions for Act I, scenes 7 to 9 read 'here the ballobegins ... The ballocircles through the porticos ... The dance circles around and they exit from the porticos.'57 Carole,round dances or carols, are found in Venetian operas throughout the seventeenth century,beginning with L'Andromeda(1637). Round dances are among the oldest choreographiesdepicted in art, seen, for example, in figures on ancient Greek vases.58Notably, no specific steps are prescribedfor carols, and they are not mentioned in any of the treatisesdealing with social dances. Nonetheless, the libretti provide invaluable information about the various woven or braided patterns combined with the round dances. In Act I, scene 9 of La Rosinda(1651), for example, a chorus of six goblins ('spiritelli') sings 'Let's weave carols to rejoice' ('Carole al giubilo tessiamo'). Many choreographersalso made skilfuluse of woven patterns in other contexts. The intrecciin Act II, scene 2 of Amoreinamorato (1686) must have made a striking effect, as two groups of twelve cupids with lit torches form braided figures. Another importantsource of choreographicinformation is the operatic character who acts as a sort of dancing master, giving advice on the ballo.For example, in Gli amond'Apollo e di Dafne (1640) Act I, scene 4, Dafne reminds her dancers to stay in parallellines and not to make a false step: Seguitepur l'incominciatoballo Gioliveninfe, allegripastorelli, Faccianoi piedivostri i paralleli A' chi la su non pon maipiede in fallo.

54 Giunone: 'Si cominci la danza, Fortissimi garzoni' and Minerva:'Si cominci, si, si, la Greca ss usanza, E mentre salta il pid la sferza suoni.' Act I, scene 4: 'Danzino e saltino / Femine & huomini.' 56 'Ballate, danzate / Col tremulo pie / Saltate, girate / Ch'il Cieco non v'.' 57 'Qui pincipia il ballo ... Gira il Ballo na sottoportici ... Gira la Danza, & escono da i sotto portici.' 58 See also the fourteenth-centuryfrescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti in the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena.

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[By all means continue the ballobegun, joyful nymphs, happy shepherdesses;Let your feet make the parallels,upon which don't ever make a false step.] Grace, lightness, and speed are three qualities mentioned often in the verses that introduce or accompany balli. In the finale of I re'infante (1683) Venus commands her followers to sparkle, celebrate, and perform graceful dances with their feet.59 In Act II, scene 10 of Veneregelosa (1643), Trulla's dancing is described as 'lighter than a bubble' ('piuf leggiero d'una galla'). Nearly all references to the speed of movements use terms such as 'veloce' (fast or rapid), 'snello' (quick or agile), 'rapido' (swift or fast), 'agile' (agile or nimble), and 'volante' (flying). The dancers in L'Eurip (1649) race with the breeze: Lascivo, e snello II pie festeggi Ii pie gareggi Col venticello. Leggiere a prova Danza formate Compagne amate Leggiadrae nova. [Lascivious and nimble, the foot celebrates, the foot races with the breeze. Lightly in contest, beloved companions, perform a graceful, new dance.]

Eyewitness accounts Eyewitness accounts by viewers who attended performances in Venice also provide information about choreography, especially when read in conjunction with the libretti. Visitors to Venice were often overwhelmed by the sheer number of operas or enthralled with the stage machinery and the singers; a few writers, some local and some foreign, comment on the balli. Robert Bargrave, an English merchant, had a passionate interest in music and wrote detailed and vivid descriptions of church music, opera, and the other musical experiences that he enjoyed during his travels.60 Venetian opera captivated him, and he listed among its delights the 'most exquisite Anticks and Masking Dances'.61 The 1656 Carnival season hosted only two operas, both by Cavalli; Bargrave must have seen Artemisia at SS. Giovanni e Paolo and L'Erismena at S. Apollinare.62 The two dances in Artemesia both involve comic characters: at the end of Act I, eight archers come to the rescue of the old nurse Erisbe, and at the close of Act II, Niso is mocked by eight pages. Erismena includes

59 voi brillate Danze ora col formate.' 60 'Mieiseguaci / Festeggiate/ leggiadre pie 'A Relationof sundryvoyages and Journeys made by me RobertBargrave', Bodleian Library,Oxford: GB-Ob, MS. RawlinsonC.799. Bargrave even composedsongs and choreographeddances for an Englishwedding in Constantinople(although it was calledoff at the last moment).See MichaelTilmouth, 'Music on the Travelsof an EnglishMerchant: RobertBargrave (1628-61)', Music and Letters, 53 (1972), 143-59. 6162 Quotedin Tilmouth,'Music on the Travelsof an EnglishMerchant', 156. The chronologyof operasat SS. Giovannie Paolo duringthe 1650sis particularlymurky. It is possiblethat Cavalli'sLa Statiraprincipessa di Persia was performedin 1655/6 and that Artemisiawas performedin 1656/7.

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 236 Irene Alm a ballofor prisoners who free their feet from chains and celebrate their freedom with a dance, weaving the chains together, and another ballo for Moorish men and women. The Pallade Veneta, a monthly news-sheet that circulated in manuscript, some- times contained reviews that provide valuable details about choreography.63 The January 1687 issue, for example, contains Francesco Coli's review of Elmiro re'di Corinto,which had opened at S. Giovanni Grisostomo on 26 December 1686. The libretto calls for two balli and a combattimento;the unusually large company of twenty-four dancers was apparently all male. The ballofor soldiers (Act II, scene 13) is described in the libretto as follows: 'Twelve followers of Pace [Peace] descend; fighting with the twelve followers of Sdegno [Scorn], they form a pleasing pattern that serves as the ballo.'Coli's review vividly expands upon this brief stage direction:

In this very noble scene one sees a monster of immense size and frightful appearance, representinga flying toad on which Sdegno rides, singing an ariettaall in a rage. Behind the machine of the terrifying monster one sees in the air among dense white clouds Pace followed by a large chorus of her ministers nicely arrangedin that cloudy heaven, a scene in effect of supreme joy, and then Pace and Sdegno quarreland dispute together in song. The monster representingSdegno spews forth from its enormous and fiery mouth a great many furious and terriblemen, and they pour out, having been restrictedin a small space, when the impetuous followers of Pace descend in a number equal to that disgorged by Sdegno who, with various patterns and well-measuredturns, have a scattered fight of fine and gallant forces, and the followers of Sdegno seeming to surrender, Pace remains victorious.64

Reviews of Venetian opera also appeared from time to time in the French monthly, the Mercuregalant. The first of these articles appeared in the August 1677 issue65 and discussed all seven of the operas presented during the 1677 Carnival season in some detail: for I/Nicomede in Bitinia, the dances are the main focus of the review.

The first act finishedwith a ballet of stonecutters.They each held their hammersand chisels, and made their movements in rhythm around a statue of Nicomede, which they seemed to complete while dancing;but all this in a manner so well planned, that one could see nothing more precise. An entree of peasants and farmhands with their shovels and their hoes finished the following act; and the second scene of the third act was agreeablyinterrupted by a dance by several heroes, who rememberingtheir former loves, each took the end of one of the various coloured ribbons that were hanging from the branches of a tall myrtle in the middle of the theatre. There was nothing so amusing as to see them tangling and

63 For a historyof this publicationand a list of extant copies,see EleanorSelfridge-Field, PalladeVeneta: Writings on Music in VenetianSociety 1650-1750 (Venice, 1985). 64 For the complete text of the review, see Selfridge-Field, Pallade Veneta, 134-42; the passage quoted here may be found on 140. 65 Pagination varies among extant copies of the Mercuregalant. In the August 1677 issue that I consulted, the discussion of Venetian opera appears on pages 72-105. Selfridge-Field cites pages 37-53; she quotes part of the review, but omits all the relevant dance passages (Pallade Veneta,338-40).

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Winged feet and mute eloquence 237 disentanglingeach other, which they did in different manners and always with a skill that brought acclamationfrom everyone.66

The libretto for I1Nicomedein Bitinia was issued in two editions, both of which list the first two dances, but not the third - further evidence that libretti provide only a conservative gauge of the role of dance in Venetian opera.67 If it were not for this journalistic account, we would not even know that the third ballo had existed, let alone something about its choreography. Moreover, accounts such as these can be read in conjunction with other sources to help imagine how such scenes may have looked. Gregorio Lambranzi, whose writing we considered above, explained exactly how to choreograph a dance such as the one in the first ballo (see Fig. 4): Here is a wooden statue which has been covered with pieces of stone, made to adhere by means of plaster, so that it appears shapeless. It is set upon the stage. Then enter two sculptorswho chisel the statue as they dance, so that the pieces of stone fall off and the mass is transformedinto a statue. The pas (steps) can be arrangedat pleasure.68

Subject and style

The sheer variety of subjects used in Venetian balli makes it impossible to treat them all in detail. The imagination of librettists and choreographers led them to create all sorts of situations, actions, and roles for dancers, and the freedom of style and technique allowed for endless variety. Some subjects had been used in theatrical dance in Italy for at least two centuries: Bacchantes, nymphs, satyrs, hunters with bears, lions or other wild animals, fire-breathing statues, pages with torches, soldiers in combat and battle scenes, madmen, Amazons, Moors, and Turks. Some of these became incorporated into the conventions of seventeenth-century Venetian opera, while others were uniquely tailored to a single opera's plot. An important way in which the various subjects were expressed to the audience was through pantomime, one of the most distinctive features of Venetian theatrical dancing. Venetian opera was by no means the first place in which pantomime appeared in Italian choreography; expressive gesture and mime are mentioned in descriptions of danced entertainments as early as the fifteenth century, and were features of many sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century pastorales, intermedi,and balli.69Pantomime was also an essential element of the commediadell'arte; although commediacharacters do not appear in Venetian operas or balli, their miming was seen in the other theatres and in squares throughout Carnival, such that the public readily absorbed their vocabulary of gestures.

66 Mercuregalant (August 1677), 93-5. 67 The librettilist a 'balloby stonecutterswith hammersand chiselsaround the statue'and a 'balloby restorerswith shovelsand hoes'. 68 Trans.F. Derrade Moroda(see n.53),Part Two, 3. " Mimewas used, for example,in the choreographiesfor GiovanniBattista Guarini's Il pastor fido(1584; published Venice 1590), Emiliode Cavalieri'sLa rappresentationediAnima, e di Corpo(1600), Marcoda Gagliano'sDafne (1607), and manyof ClaudioMonteverdi's balli and combattimenti.

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Fig. 4: Two sculptorschiselling a statue as they dance. (Lambranzi,Neue und curieuse, Book II, plate24.)

Pantomimed balliin seventeenth-centuryVenetian operas were, admittedly,on a much smaller scale than mid-eighteenth-centurypantomime ballets by choreogra- phers such as Franz Hilverding,Gasparo Angiolini, and Jean-GeorgesNoverre, yet they provide significantevidence that the balleten actionalso had historical roots in

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Italy as well as France. Several seventeenth- and eighteenth-centurytheatrical treatises specificallymention pantomime among the many aspects of Italian chore- ographythat they trace back to Greek and Roman sources. Doni, for example, drew upon Lucian in discussing the use of gesture in ancient dance, and Perrucci began chapterXI of Dell'arterappresentativa (1699), 'Del Gestire conveniente al Rappresen- tante', by tracingthe classicalart of gesture in English, French, and Italiantheatre.70 In Venetian opera,pantomime could be both comic and tragic,and might explore ideas, emotions, actions, or sentiments not readily expressed with the voice. A particularlyvivid example of tragicpantomime comes at the close of the second act of II Romoloe'l Remo (1645). Six matrons from Alba dance a ballograve as they mourn for their husbands and relatives,and weep amidst the spoils of war. They carryan urn with the ashes, a flask to collect their tears, a purse to pay Charon for the crossing, and lamps for the eternalflame as used in antiquity.The libretto describes the lamentinggestures of the women, whereas the scenario tells of sighs of pain;71 all of this would have been representedvery differentlythrough song. Pantomime was also used routinelyin balliby soldiers,gladiators, and fencers, as well as to depict other moments of violence. Act I of L'Adelaide(1672), for example, ends with a ballobased on two miners attemptingto molest Adelaide and the ensuing brawl: HereAdelaide leaves the mine,re-climbing the stone stairsby whichshe had descended,to returnto the mouthof the exit.While two workerswant to followher to molesther, they areheld back by the otherfellows who, angered,begin to argueamong themselves, forming a curiousballo in the formof a fightfor the end of Act I. Whenthis has finished,the dust alreadyclinging to them in theirniches catches on fire,and noisilyexploding, a greatdeal of marbleis demolishedin moreparts of the mine,with the ruinof someworkers, changing the scene at the sametime.

Smoking and drinking are among the ballosubjects that commonly involved pantomime. Pipes and tobacco are used with mime in Sardanapalo(1679), Olimpia vendicata(1682), and I Pertinace(1689). Pantomimed drunkenness was used for comic effect,72 and bacchanaliandances naturallymimed drinking(see Fig. 5). The stage directions for the opening scene of Amageregina de Samarti(1694) are quite specific:

70 Giovanni Battista Doni, Trattatodella musica scenica (1640), in Lyra BarberinaII, 93 and Perrucci,Dell'arte rappresentativa, 110-111. [Ed. note: For further information regardingthe theoretical underpinningsof pantomime, see Irene Alm, 'Pantomime in Seventeenth-CenturyVenetian TheatricalDance', in Creaturedi Prometeo:Il balloteatrale. Dal divertimentoal dramma.Studi offerti a Aurel M. Milloss,ed. Giovanni Morelli (Florence, 1996), 87-102.] 71 The libretto states 'Ballo di sei Matrone Albane, che piangano i mariri [sic]morti nell'uccisione del Tiranno. Havranno le ceneri in un vaso, un'ampolla da raccoglier le lagrime, una borsa per pagare il passo a Charonte, ed alcune lucerne per formarne i lume eterni secondo l'uso degli antichi, con due trofei d'armi intorno a i quali si aggirerannocon gesti lamentevoli.' Four strophes of verse follow. The scenario states 'Ballo grave con cenni dogliosi di Matrone Albane, che piangano intorno ad alcuni trofiei d'arme la morete de' loro Mariti e Parenti seguita nella mischia precedente, ed hanno il vaso delle ceneri in mano, ed alcune ampolette da raccoglierle lacrime, una borsa di monete per pagar il passo ACaronte, ed alcuni lumi eterni com'era costume degli antichi.' 72 For example, the revival of L'Orontea(1683) has a 'Ballo di Ubriachi'.

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Fig. 5: 'Two persons carryin Bacchus and hold him up until the air ends. Then they set him down and dance the following beautiful dance.' (Lambranzi,Neue and cunrieuse,Book II, plate 20.)

The triumph of Bacchus is presented by Ulderico in a garden of the kingdom. ... Royal guardsgarlanded with flowers. The curtainhaving risen, four bacchantesdancing a ballowill lead the aforementioned company. . . . Niso goes around offering sweet drinks to the bacchantes, who two by two, after drinking, will enter into the ballo. The orchestra ....

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Fig. 6: 'Ballodi Filosofi'from GiulioCesare trionfante, Act II, scene 1. (Fold-outengraving in the libretto,Venice, 1682.) answersthe musicof the aboveverses . . . In the sameprescribed order he offersthe drink to the othertwo, and repeatsthe precedingverses ... afterwhich the balloends. Props were also used in pantomimic dance to clarifycharacterizations or specific situations in a ballo.Soldiers, hunters, and gladiators carry a variety of weapons including arrows,spears, and swords.73Peasants and workers use scythes, hoes, and shovels.74 Prisoners dance in chains, as in Diocletiano(1675), or celebrate their freedom by carrying the chains, as in L'Erismena (1656). The scholars of Archimedes hold instruments of geometry while they dance in Marcelloin Siracusa (1670), and seven philosophers each with a symbolic gesture or prop (such as Diogenes with his lantern) are portrayedin the first balloof GiulioCesare trionfante (1682) (see Fig. 6). The extraordinaryvariety of subjects and charactersin the balliwas in large part a result of librettists'efforts to link the ballito the plot or subject of the opera, even though they did not necessarilyplay a criticalrole in advancingthe action. Librettists devised many motivations for balli.One of the chief reasons was allegrezza,or joy: weddings, militaryvictories, the rescue of prisoners, the arrivalof good news - all

73 Among numerous examples are a 'Ballo d'Arcieri con Archi, e Frezze [freccie]'in Ilperfetto Ibraimgran visirdi Costantinopoli(1679) and a 'Ballo di Soldati, con Lancie, e Spade' in overo L'amazzonecorsara, L'Alvildaregina de Goti (1686). 74 For example, the two balliin L'Adone(1676) are 'Ballo di Satiri, e Villanelle con Bastoni, e Falci' and 'Ballo di Resauratoricon Zappe, e Badili'.

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 242 Irene Alm of these and more were occasions for dance. In addition, mythological and supernatural characters were prone to dance, and comic characters (buffoons, court jesters, and madmen) could always provide the opportunity for a ballo.For example, in Le fortune di Rodopee Damira (1657), the librettist Aureli uses a dance by pa?zi (madmen) to expand on the idea of Damira's madness. These madmen interrupt a marital spat between Bato and Nerina, and Bato then becomes involved in their dance.75 In some cases, the principals of the opera converse at a ball, or are entertained by giochi (games) danced by gladiators or swordsmen. In other instances the connections are somewhat less obvious, though no less intriguing. Contemporary artistic or philosophical interests might have been reflected in the dancing painters, scholars, sculptors, or philosophers. There were also balli for farmers and peasants, miners and gardeners, sailors and fishermen, guards and prisoners, eunuchs and slaves.76 Despite the remarkable variety and individuality of the Venetian balli, there are many topics to which librettists and choreographers frequently return. These are summarized in the section below.

The mythological, allegorical, and pastoral

As a number of commentators have noted, the problem of introducing song and dance into drama may well have been of concern to the earliest opera librettists.77 One immediate solution was to give this heightened speech (song) and movement (dance) to higher beings, differentiating them from mere mortals who merely spoke (recitative). The notion of dance having heavenly origins was most famously celebrated in the Florentine intermedifor Lapellegrina(1589). Opera's very origins are tied to Greek and Roman myths, and characters from these stories populate the balli as well. In any number of operas, gods descend from the heavens to dance and are accompanied by various Arcadian creatures: Cupids dance for Venus; the Muses dance for Apollo; fauns and satyrs celebrate bacchanalian revels.78 The enduring popularity of pastoral themes is seen in the many balli danced by nymphs and shepherds.79 As it happens, many of the balli that refer to carols are danced by characters of this type. In Act I, scene 4 of Gli amorid'Apollo e di Dafne, Dafne invites 75 Jane Gloverstates that Aureli 'dramatically prepares' for balliwhereas Faustini does not, and cites this as one of her examples;see 'The TeatroSant'Apollinare and the Developmentof Seventeenth-CenturyVenetian Opera', Ph.D. diss. (OxfordUniversity, 1975), 266. Yet manyof the balliin Faustini'slibretti either involve or areintroduced by one of the opera'scharacters. In fact, Faustini'sElena (1660) has a danceby freedslaves similarto the danceby freedprisoners in Aureli'sL'Erismena (1656) citedby Glover.See also Faustini'sLa virtrde' strali d'Amore (1642), L'Euripo(1649), La Rosinda(1651), La Calisto(1652), andL'Eupatra (1655). 7 Lists of these and otherroles can be foundin the 'Indexof Balli',in Aim, Catalogof Venetian 984-97. n Librettos, Ed. note: On the question of operatic verisimilitude,see Nino Pirotta, 'Early Opera and Musicand Theatre toMonteverdi and Aria', fromPoliziano (Cambridge,1982), esp. 275-80, Rosand,Opera in Seventeenth-CenturyVenice, 40-45. 78 Mythological characterslisted in balliinclude the gods Amore, Apollo, Aurora, Bacco, Cibele,Diana, Imeneo, Marte, and Pallade.Dancers, however, usually played lesser mythologicalfigures such as 'amori','ciclopi', 'driadi', 'fauni', or 'zeffiri'. SSee 'ninfe','pastorelle', and 'pastori'in the 'Indexof Balli',Aim, Catalogof VenetianLibrettos.

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Winged feet and mute eloquence 243 a chorus of nymphs to celebrate her happiness 'con danze e carole', and in Act II, scene 17 of Circe abbandonatada Ulisse (autumn 1697), Bleso introduces a ballo for shepherdesses and gardeners, singing 'Charming gardeners / Come, come graceful friends / Celebrate / Dance carols'.80 Carols were typically joyful dances, and even the soldiers danced them in Xerse (1654), when Eumene calls for celebrations with the happy carols of victory following the second battle. Dancers also portray followers of allegorical figures, such as suspicions ('sos- petti'), the followers of Gelosia, in Aureli's Perseo (1665), and the ministers of Discordia in Corradi's La divisionedel mondo (1675).81 Other allegorical subjects include the four elements, the twelve months, the twenty-four rays of the sun, and the four parts of the world.

The supernatural

Dances by spirits, goblins, elves, ghosts, demons, furies, and phantoms are among those most frequently found throughout the seventeenth century. Not only did these balli allow for special effects and spectacular staging, they were easily introduced through types of scenes that had become conventions in Venetian opera.82 Sleep scenes, for example, involved phantoms and spirits who appeared in dreams. In Francesco Piccoli's trionfanteovero, 1l Theseo(1658), Act II L'incostanza closes with a scene for Anthiope. As she falls asleep, Morfeo (Morpheus, the god of dreams and son of Sleep) sings an introduction to the ballo, which is danced by various phantoms who represent impending events, showing Anthiope her future through her dreams. In Aureli's Teseotra le rivali (1685), Act III, scene 1, Fedra falls asleep and dreams of a fantastic monster and phantoms.83 A more pleasant dream is danced by a chorus of heroes in Act II, scene 19 of Ercole in Tebe (1671) by Moniglia and Aureli.84 The finale of Frigimelica Roberti's Ilpastore d'Anfriso(1695) is an elaborate allegorical scene for La Notte (Night) who appears with 'Sogni e Fantasme' (Dreams and Phantoms) who play instruments, sing, and dance. Another convention was the infernal invocation, in which spirits were conjured up to assist in carrying out a plan or to thwart someone's actions. The most famous scene of this type occurs in Cicognini's and Cavalli's Giasone(1649), which enjoyed

80 'Giardinierevezzosette / SU',si amicheleggiadrette / Festeggiate/ Carolate.' 81 The allegoricalfigures who routinelyhave followersinclude Allegrezza, Capriccio, Costanza, Inganno,Inventione, Pace, Paura, Riso, Sdegno,and Virtui.See 'seguacidi' (followersof) in the "Indexof Balli"', Alm, Catalogof VenetianLibrettos. 82 For furtherdiscussion on the use of conventionsin Venetianopera, see Rosand,Opera in Seventeenth-CentulyVenice, chapter 11. 83 'Qui al suono di gravesinfonia Fedra s'addormenta. E mentreella dormele apparirin sogno fantasticoMostro con alquantivarij fantasmi che formanoil Ballo,qual terminato sparisconoi fantasmicol mostroe Fedrasi risveglia.' 84 'Mentre Megara dorme gli appariscein sogno Ercole assiso in Trono con Pelio superato B suoi piedi.Vede quelvittorioso Heroe coronatodalla Fama d'alloro, la qualposcia alzando il volo, e suonandolaurea sua Trombachiama un Chorod'Eroi, quali compariscono ad'inchinarErcole in formadi Ballo,qual terminato sparisce il sogno, e Megarasi sveglia.'

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 244 Irene Aim a remarkablepopularity during the seventeenth century."5At the close of Act I, Medea calls the spirits to her chamber of spells and commands them to assist her. Following the chorus of spirits, Volano (a demon) sings, and after Medea's final lines, the spirits dance. Further information on at least one version of the choreography is given in three Milanese libretti from around 1660.86 In these, Medea has additional text before the 'Ballo di Spiriti',telling the spirits how she wants them to look and dance: 'not in the shape of frightfulghosts, / but with a ridiculous and charming appearance,/ press the ground, draw out / affectionate dances, joking among us.'87 In this version she seems to encouragea more grotesque and comic dance, rather than a sinister or frighteningone. This caution may have been intended to avoid anythingthat seemed too close to actuallyinvoking infernal powers, thereby attractingthe attention of the Inquisition (a particularconcern in a conservative city such as Milan).88Comic mishaps involving magic also conjured up dances of spiritsand demons, who frightenedor even tormented an unfortunate character.Another supernaturaltheme used in balliwas that of statues who come to life and dance. At the end of Act II of Aureli'sL'Erismena (1656), Cleriois alone on stage, and his curiosityleads him to open a book given to him by a court sorcerer to deliver to his master, Idraspe. No sooner has he opened it than several statues in the gallerybegin to move. Terrifiedat the sight, he runs off, and the statues join in a dance to conclude the act.89

Animals

Hunt scenes were popular in Venetian operas and were one way to introduce animalsinto balli.Bears, wild boar, and stags were pursued by hunters. Stagehands or extras may have portrayed the animals in some cases, but in other instances dancers took these roles, as in Paolo Vendramino'sL'Adone (1639), where the ballo is danced by a lion, a tiger, a bear and a wild boar, or Faustini'sLa Calisto(1652), where six bears dance at the end of Act I (cf. Fig. 1).90 Childrenmay have danced

85 The enduring popularityof Giasoneis especially notable in view of the fact that the opera 'industry' of the time produced works designed to be extremely successful for a season, but ephemeral. Many sources for Giasonesurvive (numerous libretti and scores from various revivals in Venice and elsewhere), and these still await a comprehensive study. 86 I wish to thank Martin Morell for sending me this information. One undated libretto is now at the Bologna Conservatory (I-Bc no. 6519) and two libretti are at the Milan Conservatory,one undated (I-Mc, Y.104) and one with a handwrittendate of 1660 (I-Mc, Y.105). 87 'E non in forme / Di larve spaventose, / Ma in sembianze ridicole, e vezzose / Premete il suol, trahete / Scherzando tra di noi danze amorose.' 88 Venice was somewhat more liberal;the charactersin Domenico Balbi's II sfortunatopatiente (1667) form a circle to invoke devils who dance. In 1686, however, Noris's II demoneamante, overoGiugurta was banned in Venice (Act I ended with a 'Ballo d'Ombre'). The manuscript mercuri(news-sheet) dated 12 January 1685 [M.V.] reported that the authorities had suspended performances and chastised the authors for including scenes inimicable to the Catholic religion. I-Vnm Cod. It. VI 463 (= 12107). 89 This dance is described in the scenario; a different balloappears in the libretto. 9o Notably, the account book lists expenses for the bear costumes. See Alm, TheatricalDance, table Va.

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Winged feet and mute eloquence 245 the parts of baboons and monkeys in operas such as La Bradamante(1650) by Pietro Paolo Bissari. Among the more unusual animals that dancers portrayed are the frogs in Antonio Arcoleo's La Rosaura at S. Angelo in 1689. Ostriches were surprisingly popular and appear in two operas at S. Giovanni Grisostomo in 1681, Antioco il Grandeby Frisari and IR Cresoby Corradi, as well as in Fulgenzio Mattia Gualazzi's La schiavitzifortunataat S. Angelo in 1695. The seventeenth-century chronicler of opera, Cristoforo Ivanovich testifies that Venetian theatres also used both live and mechanical animals: 'Thus there are real elephants, live camels, great chariots drawn by wild beasts and by horses: also flying horses, horses that dance, the most superb machines, presented in air, on land, and on the sea with extravagant artifice and praiseworthy invention.'91 Although in some operas the elephants and camels were stage machinery, at least one opera at S. Giovanni Grisostomo, Licinio imperatore(1684), actually featured two live camels that had been captured during the Turkish siege of Vienna.92 Horses were more often seen on stage. For example, in a review of Totila, performed at SS. Giovanni e Paolo in 1677, a reporter for the Mercuregalant writes, 'This Act [Act I] finished with a dance of cavaliers mounted on real horses'. The bears at the close of the second act of Totilawere more likely dancers or extras in costume, and the reporter simply states 'An entree of soldiers attacked by two bears finished the act'. The horses returned for the battle scene in the third act: 'Some carts loaded with spoils from the enemy passed over this bridge; they were drawn by real horses ...'93 In 1679, the same journal also reported that 'chariots drawn by real horses, and cavaliers also on horseback' were used in AlessandroMagno in Sidoneat SS. Giovanni and Paolo.94 And Andrea Perrucci, writing in 1699, confirms Ivanovich's report of flying horses, remarking on the 'flights not only of men, but of live horses' seen in Venetian theatres.95 A review of Lafortuna tra le disgratie,staged at S. Angelo in 1688, indicates that, at least on one occasion, even wild animals were brought into the opera house:

One sees in the second [scene] a stag running followed by dogs and hunters, which causes extraordinaryadmiration and the necessity to confess that the Venetians even make wild animals adapt to the stage.96

91 Cristoforo Memorieteatrali di 388-89. 92 Ivanovich, Venezia(Venice, 1687; rpt. Lucca,1993), This specialattraction was reportedin the manuscriptmercuri, dated 25 December1683, I-VnmCod. It. VI 460 (=12104). M3 ercuregalant (August 1677), 80-83. Live horsesare not mentionedin the libretto,which in the prefatorypages (p. 10) describesthe scene at the end of the firstact as an 'Abbatimentofra Vandali e Romani',whereas at the end of Act I the same scene is referred to as a 'Ballode Cavallieri'.A proposof the second-actdances, the librettolists a 'Ballodi Pastoricon Fiere'in the prefatorypages, but a 'Ballodi Soldatiinseguiti da due Orsi'at the end of Act II. 94 Mercuregalant (April 1679), 129-30. 95 Perrucci(see n.1), 52. 96 PalladeVeneta (January 1688), 64-71, quotedin Selfridge-Field(see n.63),202. A similar scenewas describedby Chassebrasde Cramaillesas havingoccurred in Berenicevedicativa (1680), presentedin the privatetheatre of MarcoContarini at Piazzolasul Brenta:'That which astonishedthe most was a realhunt of live deer,bears, and wild boars,that were killedby the hunters.'Mercure galant (February 1681), 245-46.

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Although this scene did not include a ballo,it raises the possibility that some of the animals mentioned for balliinvolving hunters may have been real.

Comedy

Choreographersat Venetian opera houses had to be adept at creating comic balli, since these were staples of the repertoire.Sometimes called a scherzoor a burla,the comic ballocould be tailored to many different settings. In some operas it was danced by pages or servants,as in Giacomo Dall'Angelo's1/Demetrio (1666), where insolent pages tease Geliro and an old woman. In others the dancers are dressed as buffoons ('buffoni') or fools ('scemi'). Some comic balli depended on physical traits, such as hunchbacks ('gobbi'), dwarves ('nani'), or cripples ('zoppi').97The adjectives'cappricioso' (whimsical) and 'bizzaro' (bizarre) are used to describe the of some balli.At the close of Act I in style VeremondaAmazzonediAragona (1652/3), Vendetta commands a celebration 'con danza bizzara'. 'Cappriciose danze' are performed by prisoners with chains on their feet at the end of Act II in Diocletiano (1675), and in Act II, scene 19 ofAribertoe Flavio regi de Longobardi (1685), the Muses dance a 'capricciosoballo'. The familiarcommedia dell'arte characters, however, never crossed over into the theatrical dances in the Venetian opera houses, perhaps because they could be seen in other theatres in Venice where spoken comedies played. Pantomime was used in many comic situations.For example, the three-partballo which closes Act I of La Bradamante(1650) begins with baboons (possibly danced by children) who are fleeing from hunters. When the hunters catch up with them, the baboons imitate their gestures, then climb up into the trees and escape. Pompeo Magno(1666) has two comic balliinvolving mime. Act II closes with a chorus of twelve shades, or spirits,who torment the comic characterDelfo, surroundinghim and tying him up while dancing (see below, Example 1). Even Santa Catterina d'Alessandria(1675), a rappresentationesacra, uses pantomimedmockery. At the end of Act I, Labinia calls the children to dance in a ballothat mocks a group of fake doctors.

Madness

Madness, whether feigned or real, was one of the conventions in seventeenth- century opera and requiredspecialized choreography.In La fintapa za (1641), the opera that establishedmadness as a convention of Venetian opera, a ballodanced by madmen closes Act II.98 The first edition of the libretto includes a scenario,which describes the dance:

97 It is not known whether Venetian theatres hired hunchbacks and dwarves or if these roles were played by dancers in costume and by children. 98 On mad scenes in Venetian opera, with particularreference to Lafinta pazza,see Rosand, Operain Seventeenth-CenturyVenice, 121-24, and Paolo Fabbri, 'On the Origins of an Operatic Topos:The Mad-scene',in Conche soavitai: Studies in ItalianOpera, Song and Dance, 1580-1740, ed. Tim Carterand Iain Fenlon (Oxford, 1995), 157-95.

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In any case, the nurse having arrivedunexpectedly to tie her up, Deidamia is helped by some court buffoons, crazyin the head, who with shovels drive off the nurse and the others, who were speaking with her; after which action Deidamia invites these madmen to perform a ballofor the happiness of having won a victory. And here ends the second Act.99 The Cannocchialeper la finta pazza gives a more detailed account: Then followed the court Eunuch, who gave Diomede a report on the fury of Deidamia,who then turned up with the captain of the armed chorus, and [Deidamia] pretended much frivolity speaking nonsense in such a way that the Eunuch, Diomede, and the Captain considered her completely mad; and because the nurse arrivedand tried to tie her up with chains, the young lady gave cry, calling for help, and so the court buffoons, crazy in the head, who came out bizarrelydressed in various colours and sizes, made everyone withdraw and set her free. Deidamia then invited them with song to perform as a sign of happiness a ballo,as they did a very bizarre one, and as if madmen, except not so crazy that the art, the tempos, and the metres were very well marked,which not only gave delight to the eyes, but also to the intellect, seeing that even ridiculousnessand discord are subjects of art and of ingenuity, and this was the end of the Epitasis, or second act.100 The libretto also emphasizes this choreographic madness. Deidamia first sings verses urging the madmen to dance. After they have danced a little, she interrupts them and urges them 'alle corde', which may have a double meaning of dancing on tightropes (she tells them not to be frightened) and of playing stringed instruments (she mentions chromatic and diatonic strings). The crazy buffoons then sing five strophes, with many references to crazy steps, crazy feet, crazy dancing, and so forth, all of which is suggestive both in terms of the style of dance and music. The second strophe begins 'Pazzo e il pie, che un pazzo segue' (Crazy is the foot that follows a madman), and the third and fourth strophes are: 3. Pazzo core hi pazzo piede Che leggiero Quinci e quindi errarsi vede. Pur ch'io resti un pazzo vero, Voli il pi&,la gamba ondeggi, E di un pazzo brillarl'alma festeggi.

4. Pazzo suono, e questa accanto Pazza danza Accompagni il pazzo canto. Pazzo ballo hi pazza usanza, E noi pazzi, e saltellanti Per un pazzo desir siam pazzi amanti. [A crazyheart has a crazy foot, that is seen to wander lightlyhere and there. If only I remain a true madman,my foot flies, my leg sways, and grace celebratesin the sparkleof a madman.

Crazy music, and nearby this crazy dance accompanies the crazy song. A crazy ballohas a crazy style, and we madmen and dancers are crazy lovers for a crazy desire.]

9 'Argomento e scenario', Lafinta (1641), 17. 100ooI1 cannocchialeper la finta pazza, 40-41.paza

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Madness of heart and mind thus leads to madness of the dance, all of which accompanies music no less driven by insanity.

Martial subjects The ancient Greek use of military or pyrrhic dances was cited by many contempo- rary writers on dance, and many operas had at least one battle scene, staged as a ballo for soldiers, warriors, archers, gladiators, or fencers.101 The terms abbattimentoand combattimentoare in some cases used interchangeably with ballo;for instance the first dance in Noris's Astiage (1677) is labelled 'Mock battle by soldiers' ('Abbatimento finto de Soldati').102 A review of Astiage reports that 'The first scene was the camp of an entire army, where some soldiers performed a pyrrhic dance, accompanied by a marvellous symphony. This dance was interrupted by the arrival of a princess followed by officers of her army, all on horseback.'103 Some of these battle scenes were done on a huge scale complete with horses. Other choreographed fights are labelled 'rissa' (brawl), 'gioco di lotta' (game of wrestling), 'gioco di spada' (sword play), or 'gioco d'armi' (weapons play). The moresca, a battle dance dating back to the early fifteenth century, was seen in the theatres as well as on the streets and the bridges of the city during Carnival.104 Act III of Badoaro's Le nozze d'Enea conLavinia (1641) ends with a 'combattimentoin the style of a moresca which serves as the ballo'. Veremonda di Aragona, by Amazzone Strozzi, used a moresca in both the Neapolitan (1652) and the Venetian (1653) productions. In operas, however, morescas were not always serious battle dances. The Apparati sceniciperlo TeatroNovissimo describes the ballo at the end of Act II in Veneregelosa (1643), led by the 'buffoon' Trulla: The King laughed at these blunders, and commanded that [Trulla]sing, and he, having begun, had not yet finished the first strophe, when some other buffoons dressed as toys appeared,who after each strophe danced an amusing quasi-moresca.105 The moresca could also be used on joyful occasions; the final ballo in La Venere gelosa, which follows the wedding ceremony near the end of Act III, is a moresca. The Apparati scenicidescribes:

101See 'arcieri','gladiatori', 'guerrieri', 'schermitori', and 'soldati'in the 'Indexof Balli',Alm, Catalogof VenetianLibrettos. 102 See also Minato'sXerse (1654), set to musicby Cavalli;the librettostates that Acts I and II end with combattimenti,while the Venetianscore labels them balli.I-Vnm Cod. It. IV 374 (=9898). 103 Mercuregalant (August 1677), 87. 104 Thereis some debateover the originsof the moresca- whetherit is actuallya Moorish danceor if it has its roots in ancientfertility rites. Although historically Moors were white as well as black,the term 'Moorish'is often takento meandark-skinned, and is thoughtto come from the Greekword mauros,meaning dark. Renaissance morescas were often performedwith blackenedfaces and portrayedbattles between Muslims and Christians. The guerrade' pugni, or forte d'Ercole, was describedby some as a form of the moresca foughtby membersof differentsestieri (sections of the city).The Comtede Caylus,who travelledin Italyduring 1714 and 1715,wrote that 'the Arsenalottiand the Nicolottido dancesin the styleof the morescaand with turns,which one callsin Venicethe forze d'Ercole'.Comte de Caylus,Voyage d'Italie 1714-1715, ed. A. Pons (Paris,1914), 118. 105Apparati scenici, 28. [Ed.note: see also Heller,'Dancing Desire' below.]

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Wingedfeet and mute eloquence 249 He was accompaniedby a chorusof faunsand of satyrs,who were going aroundsinging; at the end the buffoonTrulla arrived, who, so happyfrom the weddingconcluded in court; was carryinga flask,and he beganto jest with them, and these were theirwords: Chorus:Horns and pipes Flutesand cymbals And cymbalsand kettledrums.106 In the libretto these verses are marked 'Chorus of Satyrswith a ballo',followed by the directions 'They fight a moresca with clubs'.

Exoticism and foreign styles Seventeenth-centuryVenice was a city in which the 'four corners of the earth'met; its residents had first-handcontact every day in the piazzas and marketplaceswith people from many nations broughtthere throughcommerce and trade.Furthermore, duringCarnival Venetians indulged their fascinationwith other culturesby adopting foreign identitiesthrough costumes and masks.Thus, these 'foreign'dances not only reflected the commercialand politicalinterests of the government,but also the daily life of the city and the fantasylife of Carnival.On the Venetian stage, dancerscould be found garbedin African,Albanian, American, Armenian, Asian, Assyrian,Belgian, English, Egyptian,Ethiopian, French, German,Greek, Iberian,Indian, Macedonian, Moorish, Persian, Spanish, Slavic, and Turkish costumes, as well as portraying gypsies, savages, and pygmies. Foreign dance styles also are specified in libretti, which list balli'alla francese','alla greca', 'alla spagnola',and 'popolare d'inghilterra', among others. A number of dances are simply described as being by foreigners ('genti straniere'or 'forastieri').The four corners of the earth ('Le quattroparti del mondo') is a theme used in several balli, including one in Piccoli's L'incostanza trionfanteovero II Theseo(1658), which has a battle among European,Africans, Asians, and Americans,who accompanythe four parts of the world. Many of the dances reflect Venice's contact with and interestin the Muslimworld to its east and south. Variousgroups appear,but perhapsthe most popularwere balli featuringthe Moors: Muslimpeople of mixed Arab and Berberdescent living chiefly in northern Africa. There are, for example, Ethiopian Moors in 1RCiro (1654), the Egyptian Moors in Laodiceae Berenice(1695), or Indian Moors in II coloref/la regina (1700). The two most common images of Moors in theatricaldances are as slaves, or as warriorsor corsairswielding the traditionalcurved sword, or scimitar. Another Eastern people, the Turks, also had a long history with Venice, one sharplydefined by war. The seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw the last of Venice's many Turkish wars - the war of Crete (1645-69) and the two wars of Morea (1684-99 and 1714-18). Significantly,Turkish dances are not found in Venetian operas until the later part of the seventeenth century. Perhaps during the war of Crete, in which Venice suffered many losses, the Turks were too sensitive a

106 'Era egli accompagnato da un Choro di Fauni, e di Sattiri, che andavano cantando; alla fine vi giunse Trulla buffone, che tutto allegro delle nozze concluse in Corte, portava un fiasco, e si diedea buffoneggiarecon coloro,e tali furonodi questile parole.Coro: Corni e Piffari / Flautie cembali/ E cembalie naccare'.Apparati scenici, 37.

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 250 Irene Alm subject to be used in theatrical entertainment. However, during the First War of Morea (1684-99), when General Francesco Morosini regained Venice's lost territory and more, Turkish subjects would have been a reminder of the Republic's victories, and they became popular topics for dance. For the majority of the exotic dances, the libretti give no indications of style or steps, although several do make a point of stating that balli are danced according to the practice of a certain country - for example, the Armenian masquerade 'in the style of that nation' at the close of Act II in Sesto Tarquinio(1679), and the 'ballo for Moors, who dance according to their custom' in I1 prodigio dell'innocenza(1695). Although characterization undoubtedly relied on distinctive costumes and sets, descriptions and engravings suggest that the choreography itself also reflected national styles. Dances by Moors were apparently lively. For example, in La Dori, overolo schiavoreggio (1663), Erindo sings an aria to introduce the dance by Moorish eunuchs of the seraglio, and he commands: Il Ballo movete Veloci col pi& Danzate Correte Venite con me

[Begin the ballowith swift feet. Dance, run, come with me.]

In La Semiramide(1671)107 and Oratio (1688), choreographers make use of Moorish soldiers with their swords to literally spell out messages, rather than do battle. The libretto for La Semiramidegives these stage directions: 'Ballo by Moorish Soldiers with Creonte who with their scimitars create in so many beats as many words, that form the verses given below'.108 In Orazio, Moors with weapons form verses that were also sung by a chorus, but Tosi's score does not survive.109 Francesco Coli reviewed Orazio in the Venetian journal, the Pallade veneta,writing, 'Bold and courageous battles, fights, and feats of great wonder are seen in this theatre, and in Act III one enjoys a balloby Moors who, with weapons in hand, form various words, clear and easily understood'.110 Nine balli are listed as either in the French style or by French characters.111Seven of these date from the 1680s and 1690s, the period during which French social 107 Librettoby G. A. Monigliaand M. Noris and musicby PietroAndrea Ziani. 108 'Ballodi MoriSoldati con Creontei quailcon scimitarrecompongono in tantecadenze tanteparole, che formanoli sottoscrittiversi: Dio di Gnido / Io rido di te / Se a volo / Ogni duolo / Ho fuggedal R&.'Unfortunately, the ballomusic is not extant. 109 'Siegueintreccio giocoso di mori con armi,che formanole seguentiparole, che da un coro Vengonoespresso. Goda Roma./ Alba e Doma./ Ridail Lazio./ Viva Tullo./ E viva Orazio.' 110 January1688, 73-81; quotedin Selfridge-Field,Pallade Veneta, 205. 111 These are:a correntefranceseby six peasantgirls in L'Eupatra(1655); a balloby four French cavaliersin L'Adelaideregia principessa di Susa (1670); a balloby two youngFrench girls and boys, slavesin the seraglioin PompeoMagno in Cilicia(1681); a balloallafrancese in Pub.Elio Pertinace(1684); two ballialla francese in Il trionfodi Amore e diMarte (1689); a grandanza francesein Onorioin Roma(1692); a balloby Frenchladies and cavaliersin Sigismondoprimo al diadema and a Frenchand cavaliersin (1696); balloby Spanish L'innocenzagiustfiycata (1699).

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Wingedfeet and mute eloquence 251 dance was beginning to arrivein Italy. Only two other foreign dances, one English and one Spanish, have verses that mention steps or style. The English ballopopolare in La barbariedel caso (Murano, 1664) seems to have been a lively dance. The verses exhort the dancers to 'invite your feet to leaps' and mention correntiand salti mortali (somersaults).

Ballroom scenes

The rich blend of cultures that made up Venetian society participatedin what was to become a convention both in Venetian life and theatre:the festa di ballo.At least nineteen operas incorporatean extendedfestadi ballomodelled directlyon the typical Venetian balls that took place during Carnivalseason.112 This type of scene was especially popular in the 1680s and 1690s, after the elegant Teatro S. Giovanni Grisostomo opened in 1678 and began an annualtradition of hosting a ball for the nobility on the last night of Carnival.During one season, 1683, four of the six opera houses (S. Cassiano,SS. Giovanni e Paolo, S. Salvatore,and Cannaregio)presented operas with dances of this sort, and the following season S. Angelo followed suit.113 Festedi ballowere given throughout the year by members of the Venetian nobility to entertain and impress prominent visitors. The number of balls peaked during Carnivalseason for two reasons:first, the arrivalof throngs of visiting nobility from throughout Italy and Europe; and second, a relaxationof Venetian sumptuarylaws (regulations which restricted expenditures on luxuries, affecting everything from clothing to food and lighting). During Carnival,the ballroomscould be transformed into scenes of lavish display for an audience of invited guests, as reported in the April 1679 issue of the Mercuregalant. As the palacesare quitespacious, the ballroomis amongeight or ten rooms,all of which aredecorated with rich drapes, paintings, and very expensive furniture. ... Theinvited ladies are seatedin the ballroom,where the noblemencome to takethem to dance.Their dance is only a type of promenade,occasionally continued from room to room, where the occupantscan have the pleasureof seeingthe whole ballpass by.114 The nature of the Venetianfesta di ballomade it well suited for adaptationto the dramaticstage. Unlike French courtly dances with complex patterns of steps, often performed by a single couple for a critically observing audience, the Venetian promenadewas an ideal setting for amorous conversationsand intrigues.Librettists, therefore, did not have to interruptthe development of the plot when inserting a festa di ballo,but could use the dancing to advantagein having charactersexpress their thoughts or emotions 'privately'against the colourful backdrop of a crowded ballroom. Seleucoin 1666 was the first opera to portray a typicalfesta di ballo(see

112 See Irene Alm, 'Operatic Ballroom Scenes and the Arrival of French Social Dance in Venice', Studimusicali, 25 (1996), 345-71, which includes a list of all the operas in question (358-61); see also the descriptions of Venetian balls in Aim, TheatricalDance, chapter 6, 194-202, and a discussion of the music in chapter 7, 269-72. 113 In 1683, S. Salvatore also hosted a ball in the theatre on the last night of Carnival. Chassebrasde Cramaillesdescribed the event in the Mercuregalant (April 1983), 78-81. 114 Mercuregalant(April 1679), 120-22.

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below, Ex. 7). Ten years passed, however, before anotherballroom scene appeared, in Galieno(1676). Then within the space of a decade (1679-89) fourteen operas includedfestedi ballo.A French review of Neronementioned that for the festa di ballo there were 'many extraordinaryinstruments that were on the stage',115and it seems likely that in most of these scenes one or more dance bands would have played on stage, visuallyas well as aurallyre-creating the atmosphereof thefestadi ballofor the singers. That the geographicalor historical setting of the opera might be at odds with a seventeenth-centuryVenetian ballroom seems to have matteredlittle to the librettist or the audience. A striking juxtaposition of locales occurs at the start of Circe abbandonatada Ulisse(autumn 1697 at SS. Giovanni e Paolo), in which a Venetian festa di ballois immediatelyfollowed by a balloalla greca. Whereas the opening dance would have transportedthe opera to a seventeenth-centuryVenetian ballroom, the balloalla greca serves to relocatethe opera in time and place so that the plot can begin to unfold. By the last decade of the century French social dances are mentioned more frequentlyin first-handaccounts of Venetian balls, although the descriptionswere not always complimentary.On 18 February1695, James Drummond, Fourth Earl of Perth, cynicallyobserved in a letter to the Countess Marischallthat the music seemed almost superfluousto the promenade and derided the Venetian attempts at French figured dancing: The granddance is to walkabout (with or withoutmusick is allone) for threeor fourhours, everygallant with a lady,and this processionends with an Englishcountry dance; then they dance,four together,a dancewhich I cannotremember how it is called,I think it is a Rigadoun,but it is to a Minuete;and then comes the Frenchdances, as awkwardlyas can be...116

During this same period French dances became part of the operaticfesta di ballo and standard social dances appear more and more frequently in the scores for ballroom scenes from the 1690s. Minuets and other social dances also began to be used for a varietyof ballion other subjects as well, whereas until the 1680s virtually none of the music for Venetian theatricaldances had been based on standarddance forms."' Thus, when the French style of dancing arrivedin Venice, the ballroom scenes, reflecting this change, lost much of their dramatic function and became simply an element of spectacle. The convention of the dramaticallyintegrated ballroom scene eventually would resurface in striking examples throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (from Mozart to Verdi), but never again with such frequency or such special power to bind audience and opera.

115 Mercuregalant (April 1679), 134-35. 1"6 Lettersfrom James Earl of Perth (London, 1845), 52-53. 11v This is not true, however, of revivals of Venetian operas in other Italian cities. See the discussion above (n. 32) on the new dances that Stradellasupplied for Giasone(as I1 novello Giasone)and Scipioneafricano at the Teatro Tordinona in Rome, 1671.

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Whereasthe bulk of the instrumentalpieces within Venetian operas were balli,some served other purposes, and the function of individual pieces is not always immediatelyapparent. There are nonetheless patterns in the ways scores were put together that help resolve the basic question, even if some individualcases remain problematic. Most operas open with a sinfoniain several short sections, and often each act is preceded by a shorter instrumentalpiece. It is not uncommon for some of these pieces to have dance titles such as 'Balletto', 'Corrente',or 'Giga';they may also be marked'Sinfonia' or 'Ritornello',or have no label at all. Pollarolo'sIR colorefa la regina

di Fantasme Ballo do* -' "'" ".. .. , _ , _

TI" I awI I I - I I I II r-= I F-pI I': I

fdo ...... MONO As IJ J Jk J J-NI,- ...... I II Vop #

Al i 01&6ct10/ -?

a, I I

C . It , I-IvI ? r i, I "

,-,.I _ i d i Li ih i i i

Ex. 1: PompeoMagno (1666), Act II, scene 22 (I-Vnm, Cod. It IV 377 (-9901), fols. 105v-106'). The scoring here has been reduced from the original five parts.

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Ballo b

A , F wIdF I-.,, "F II p

1 " W ~ l 11 uI w, )[ ,o~

op IF

b--d -opJ • :

DE"r. r 1wI I r ' :-. I- -,

Ex. 2: L'Argia(1669), Act II, scene 20 (I-VLevi,C.F.A. 8, fols. 47v-50v).

(1700) opens with three movements titled 'Sinfonia Presto / Corrente staccato / Gigue'. In this and similar instances, the instrumental pieces appear to have functioned as 'symphonic' introductions, not as dances, a conclusion that finds support in cases where more than one score is available for comparison. The Venetian score for Pietro Andrea Ziani's L'Annibalin Capua(1661), for example, includes no music for the ballodanced by spirits at the end of Act I, but has a 'Corrente'at the beginning of Act II. That this piece should notbe used for the ballo is made clear by the Roman score, which includes music for the balloat the end of Act I, and then begins Act II with the same 'Corrente'as in the Venetian score. Similarly,the label 'balletto' does not necessarilymean that a piece was danced. In fact, in opera scores the term 'balletto' is more often associated with sinfonieor non-dance music than with choreographedballi. On the other hand, some untitled instrumentalpieces were almost certainlydances, based on their style as well as on information from libretti.Most balliemploy a homophonic texture,whereas sinfonie,

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Ballo d'Eunuchi

6 6E [sic]7 Ex. 3: La Dori (1661) Act I, scene 12 (I-Vnm,Cod. It IV 410 (=9934), fol. 41r). ritornelli,and instrumental pieces for set changes often use imitative textures. These are general tendencies, however, not absolutes, as a few dances do have brief passages of imitation. And despite these guidelines,there are still scores in which it is difficultto decide whether a piece was used for a balloor for some other function. The fifty-sixinstrumental pieces included in Table 3 (see Appendix) are those for which the availableevidence suggests that they were actuallydanced. They range in length from four to ninety-six bars (counting repeated sections), with an average length of about twenty-six bars. In the earliestdances various metres and forms are employed. Duple metre and binaryform are increasinglyfavoured for instrumental dance music in the 1670s, and overall more than half of these balli are in duple metre. Twelve dances use sections of contrastingmetres, while eleven are in triple 3 metre (eight in and three simply marked3), and four in compound metre (two in C~and two in 12). The formal structureof most of these dances consists of two or more repeatedsections; nearlyhalf (twenty-five) are binary.Nine dances have three sections, and six are in four or more sections. The others lack repeat signs and are generallythrough-composed. Very few Venetian balli bear the titles of standard seventeenth-centurydances. In fact, most of the instrumental pieces in these scores labelled with standard dance titles are not balli, but are movements of the opening sinfoniaor are introductions to the second or third acts of the opera. Since so many Venetian theatrical dances were meant to convey a particularsubject through movement and pantomime, the music was often specificallycomposed to suit their character and action. Interestingly, symmetrical four-bar phrasing is not used often in Venetian balli; more often the phrasing is asymmetrical and unpredictable. A four-bar phrase may be answered by five bars, or a series of two-bar phrases finish with a three-bar phrase. Irregular phrasing often occurs in conjunction with metre changes, and fermatas are used in a number of balli, suggesting that

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Ballettode Pazzi ( " L 1b.F "fJb *J4AL.OF i ".., ..Ai

i/ lop I ff W t' • O-

od O O , _ ,-

A2:do

I "I ? ".._ F • - , F • ' F i I

- . ,,.. .

r d. " " " ?' P" • . J r.

,OP ORa9"9 OP.... . IF wI

I I I I

3:0o 9 •..

piano forte

1 A P ? I pianoO! i tJ

Ex. 4: Act scene 20 Cod. It IV 377 fols. PompeoMagno (1666), I, (I-Vnm, ( -9901), 56r-57v). The scoring here has been reduced from the original five parts.

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doo 1 -

4:0 m 1f,

1 p, A. I0001 Ao --, .li OP-M,

f I

= o - " 4 I wI F I I MI, - J I -•:.r .. . .. 1 .,. F-ok . . --I -- -, l Ex. 4: continued. the choreography and music were carefully coordinated, and that the composer may well have written the music after the basic movements were set. For example, dances involving supernaturalcreatures often suggested the unpredict- able, the abnormal.It is not surprising,therefore, that composers and choreogra- phers used sudden changes, irregular phrasing, and rhythms interrupted by fermatas in balli danced by ghosts, phantoms, spirits, or other supernatural beings. Seven examples of supernaturalballi appear in Venetian scores.118Cavalli, for instance, called for a darkerregister by using soprano rather than treble clefs in two of his balli danced by phantoms, the first in the prologue of Gli amori d'Apolloe di Dafne (1640) and the second at the close of Act II in PompeoMagno (1666). In the latter, the phrases are short and abrupt:mysterious dotted rhythms hesitate in the second bar on a whole note with a fermata, and the second section has a furious rush of semi-quavers, followed by an impish dance in compound metre reminiscent of a giga. (See Ex. 1.)119 In Act II, scene 20 of L'Argia(1669), the phantoms have mysteriousmusic filled with suspensions and chromaticism. Somewhat surprisingly,only this ballo for phantoms (and the one in PompeoMagno) emphasize the minor mode. (See Ex. 2.) Music survives for only about a dozen balliwith foreign themes, although the music remainedlargely within the languageof seventeenth-centuryVenetian opera, even when portrayingEastern cultures, as for example in this ballofor Moorish eunuchs from La Donr(1663). (See Ex. 3.)

118 In addition to those discussed below, these include the end of Act II of Legrenzi's Germanicosul Reno(1676) and the ultimointramezzo of Pollarolo's Ilpastored'Anfriso (1695). The Roman revival of Giasone,Stradella's Il novelloGiasone (Rome, 1671), also included a supernaturalballo associated with Medea's incantation scene. 119 Ed. note: Alm's transcriptionsin all of the following music examples adhere to her sources, which, in some cases, may transmitproblematic harmonies, rhythms, or text underlay.

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Ba~e

f r m

,-•I , .• -

dr op

OR Ir " I W. ! 1ir'I • I I L4 I p . v •.•

I .. .P .... . t 'I• Ir IF lip- :---f ,

- •-,•~~~~~~ .. ,I1 . .L= t

op 7

r .. . " r '"ORkf " : ; 6wo ..-'• .? .

IO-P• "

....rr' I" r r -- OP I ? .. OP J rof r •:•,•r•I r • I

Ex. 5: ]Eliogabalo(1668), Act III, scene 5 (I-Vnm, Cod. It IV 413 (=9937), fol. 78r).

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Ballo[follows Sibilla's aria 'a la Francese']

A-4

Ex. 6: Amulioe Numitore(1689), end of Act I (A-Wn, Mus. Hs. 17689 [no folio numbers]), bars 1-4.

Cymbals or percussion may have been added to create a Moorish flavour, although they are not indicated in the score. Turkish instruments are mentioned in the directions for some of these dances - see ICGran Tamerlano(1689)120 and Irene (1695)121 - but unfortunately the score for the first is lost and the score for Irene does not include music for the dances. Music associated with comedy or madness could also be highly idiosyncratic, inspiring what might have been a parody of dance steps. Cavalli's PompeoMagno (1666) includes an entire suite danced by eight madmen: two for music, two for painting, two for alchemy, and two for poetry - each pair being characterized with its own short binary piece in a contrasting style. (See Ex. 4.) In the 'Burla tri Giardinieri e Buffoni di Corte' in Act III of Eliogabalo (1668) the stop-and-start rhythms offset the regular four-bar phrases, and the dotted rhythms seem to add a touch of mock courtliness.122 (See Ex. 5.) Among the dances with social dance titles that functioned as balli, some seem to have been chosen for their comic effect. The brief correntein Cavalli's second opera, Gli amorid'Apollo e di Dafne (Act I, scene 2), has a conventional profile - compound metre (ci), binary form, and cadences marked by hemiolas - but the intent may well have been comic, in that it immediately follows a short aria in which the old woman, Cirella, sings of moving slowly with shaky steps.123 Comedy may also have been the inspiration for gighe, such as one found in Pietro Andrea Ziani's L'Antigona delusa d'Alceste.124It occurs in the midst of the closing recitative of Act II, sung by the stuttering comic character Lesbo. The libretto describes a 'ballo for cavaliers of various nations with Lesbo amidst them', and the stage directions state, 'Here 120 Text by G. C. Corradiand musicby Marc'AntonioZiani. 121 Text by G. FrigimelicaRoberti and music C. F. Pollarolo. 122 by Ed. note:Except for the regularfour-bar phrases, this piece has the rhythmicprofile of a French-stylecourante, and perhapswas intendedas a referenceto courtlyFrench ballrooms. 123 See the facsimilescore to FrancescoCavalli, Gli amorid'Apollo e di Dafne,ed. Howard MayerBrown (New York,1978), 17v. 124 This operawas revivedat S. Salvatorein 1670,having first been performedin 1660 at SS. Giovannie Paolo undersomewhat hasty circumstances, with borrowedballi. A numberof changeswere madefor the revivalin 1670,including new balli.

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s K WN- ....-..- --m • . . .

[Ersistrato] [Eurindo]

Mi-raquan- e bel- le - Lo

[libretto: Antioco sta sedendo]

sguar-do si con- fon - de nel Con- i nuo1pas saggio di Splen dor in dor di sp-e--

Ex. 7: Seleuco(1666), Act II, scene 18 (I-Vnm, Cod. It IV 454 (= 9978), fols. 68'71r), bars 1-17. (Ersistrato:Look, so many beautifulwomen! Eurindo:The eye gets confused by the continuous passing of splendour after splendour, of gleam after gleam ...)

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oooI r

rag- - gio di rag- , ragrag-- gogi. min ragrag- - gio1. di splen dor in splen dor di:

op4

If r1 .'r "

rag gio di rag - gio in rag- gio

op =PIE

Ex. 7: continued.

people of various nations come out, who introduce the ballo,beginning to disagree among themselves on account of some tokens of love".125Lesbo interruptsthem with much stuttering,and urges them to dance with him; this ballomay have been labelledgiga because it was intended as a parody of a popular dance, as appropriate to the comic situation. The use of standardcourt dances later in the century is particularlyevident in works that consciously invoke the French style. Tosi's Amulioe Numitore(1689), for example, includes three dances in triple metre (1) with the two-bar phrasing characteristicof the minuet (despite the time signature,they are barred every six beats). The French connection is even explicit, as the first of these directlyborrows the music from the aria ' la Francese' that precedes it. (See Ex. 6.) The majority of balli using social dance titles appear in ballroom scenes - the staged versions of the Venetianfeste di hallothat were held both on and off the operatic stage duringCarnival. In the first libretto to contain a staged Venetian-style festa di ballo,Seleuco (1666), Sartorio re-created the sound of the dance band by composing an eight-and-a-half-barinstrumental ground. The extra half bar causes 125 See the prefatory pages and Act II, scene 22.

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Rigadon

[Minuet]

Da si - nIni - stra i1 Ciel ba - le- - - na

piD O ri - den - te ap - pa - re ii di

40• " " " " L ,va.k,U . -slylyJ I J

Ex. 8: NeronefattoCesare (1693), Act III, scene 16 (D-SWI,Mus. 4189, 294-5). Firststrains of the rigaudonand the sung minuet. the pattern to shift within the bar, and there are nearlyseven full repetitions of this instrumentalmusic. The rhythmic pattern of the bass line establishes the leisurely pace of the promenade. Against this music, Sartorio composed a variety of vocal lines, suited to the different characters attending this ball. Overall the music provides two levels of awareness:the large picture of the ongoing dance and the close-ups of various characters on stage - a cinematic effect of focusing on the whole as well as parts of the scene, cutting back and forth between the two. (See Ex. 7.) Towards the end of the century, the scenes with continuous duple-metre instrumentalmusic supportingsung conversationsdisappear and are supplantedby French figureddances, with more rigid structuresand generic celebratorytexts sung by soloists or the entire ensemble. Pollarolo's Onorioin Roma(1692) embodies this

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Winged feet and mute eloquence 263 moment of change in Venetian social dance via its two lengthy social dances. The first, in Act II, scene 9, is a passeggio,or promenade, in duple metre. The voices and instruments are used in a concertatostyle, however, and the duet text is a simple expression of rejoicing, not an intimate conversation. The finale calls for a 'gran Danza Francese' and the score contains a lengthy ciaccona,or French chaconne, in triple metre. Pollarolo skilfully alternates the different vocal and instrumental ensembles; the text is celebratory and neither the libretto nor the musical setting suggest conversation.126 Other examples of French social dances appear more and more frequently in the scores for ballroom scenes during the 1690s. For example, the ballofiguratothat ends Furio Camillo (1692) is clearly a minuet. A 'Borea' (bourree) is paired with a balletto in Act III, scene 1 of Neronefatto Cesare(1693) and the finale of that opera employs a 'Rigadon' (rigaudon), which alternates with two strophes of an aria based on the minuet. (See Ex. 8.)

Vocal dance music

The same question raised with instrumental music - that is, 'which pieces were danced?' - can be asked about many vocal pieces, both choral and solo. Did a vocal piece introduce the dance, was the dance performed to the ritornello,or was the piece sung and danced simultaneously? The only instances in which it is certain that vocal music accompanied dance are those in which either the score or the libretto specifically states that a chorus is danced and sung, or that an aria accompanies the dance. In addition, the special circumstances of the festa di ballo,or ballroom, scenes often involved sung conversation while the instrumental dance music continues in the background. Seventeenth-century writers disagreed as to whether choruses should (or could) sing and dance simultaneously. Based on his interpretation of Greek practice, Cavalieri recommended that a final, 'formal' ballo should be sung and played by the dancers, but Doni strongly disagreed with this notion, and stated that Greeks never sang and danced simultaneously, thus expressing a more practical approach to performance.127 A letter from Monteverdi (6 January 1617), concerning his Le nozze di Tetide, specifically refers to separate groups of singers and dancers.128 Indeed, relatively few choruses are specified as dances in Venetian libretti or scores, and the

126 Ed. note:These two piecesmay be seen as Examples79 and 80 in Alm, 'Theatrical Dance',506-20. 127 Doni, Trattatodella musica secnica, in Lyra BarberinaII, 115-17. See Alm, 'TheatricalDance', 25-27, and 'Humanism'(n.46). 128 'And if at the same time you accommodate to a dance measure the lines which the Nereidshave to sing (to the tempo of whichyou couldmake expert dancers dance gracefully),it seems to me thatit would be a much more suitablething.' Trans. Denis Stevens,The Letters of ClaudioMonteverdi (Cambridge, 1980), 126. Monteverdidiscusses his approachto composingfor dancein a numberof otherletters as well. See ibid.,46-47, 106-09, 115-18, 140-41, and 167.

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 264 Irene Alm stage directionsoften imply that the ballois danced to verses sung by someone other than the dancers.129 Glover has proposed that the singershired for the chorus would have also danced the balliat the close of the acts with instrumentalaccompaniment: Withthe increasinglyspectacular historical librettos in the 1660s,choruses were once more adopted.Yet it would seem that their chief contributionwas visualrather than musical. Choralmusic was generallyshort and simple,whether in six partsor two, and the chorus was probablyintended also to dancethe balliat the end of the firsttwo acts andto execute any formalmovement during the opera.130 Account books from the 1660s, however, record payments for dancers, and it seems almost certain that in Venice the dancers and singers were separategroups. Whereas the use of the chorus waxes and wanes over the course of several decades, the ballipersist, and the number of dancersseems to have remainedconstant. It thus seems unwarrantedto assume that chorus members would have doubled as dancers. Table 4 (see Appendix) provides a detailed list of the thirty-nineballi with vocal accompaniments,solo, ensemble, and choral. On averagethe vocal pieces appearto be twice as long as the instrumentaldance pieces; this may simply be a result of the fact that there was less need to write out the instrumentaldance music in the score of the opera, or to indicate repeated sections. Whereas dances with instrumental accompanimentscould be kept in separate scores, with brief cues copied into the full score, those with vocal accompaniments needed to be rehearsed with the singers, and thus were necessarilyincluded in the full score. The vocal pieces range in length from nine to 174 bars. In some of these, of course, dancing alternatedwith singing, and then combined for a grand finale. For the most part vocal dance pieces favour triple metre or contrastingsections of both duple and triple metre. The notable exceptions to this are the ballroom scenes, which as we have seen above, often employ duple metre for the promenadestypical of the Venetianfesta di ballo,since the dancing in these scenes is more closely tied to the instrumentalaccompaniment than to the conversation sung by the soloists. The earlierchoruses do not have instrumentalaccompaniment (some even lack continuo parts), althoughinstruments may have doubled the vocal lines. Only in the lavish ensembles by Pollarolo in the 1690s do full complements of instruments ('tutti gl'istromenti')join the chorus. Danced choral music is most often celebra- tory, and characteristicallyrelies on simple homophonic textures and short repeated phrases of text. This is equally true in the early choruses by Cavalli and the large-scalescenes for chorus and instruments by Pollarolo from the 1690s. Many choruses not specified as dances also use this style, such as a chorus of hunters singing 'alla caccia' or a crowd singing 'viva, viva'. These may have been accompanied by some simple gestures and stage movement, but unless a ballois

129 See, for instance, Act II, scene 11 of Cavalli'sLe nozzedi Tetie di Peleo(1639). The stage directions in the score state 'Ballo sung by Bacco and by Sileno and answered by the 130 chorus of gods; Dance by fauns and bacchantes'. Jane Glover, 'The Peak Period of Venetian Public Opera: The 1650s', Proceedingsof theRoyal MusicalAssociation,102 (1975-76), 73. See also her dissertation, 'The Teatro Sant'Apollinare'(n.75), 118.

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Winged feet and mute eloquence 265 indicated immediately after, or in the vicinity of one of these choruses (as in the final scene of Act I in Cavalli's Elena), it probably was not accompanied by dancing. Cavalli's Le nozze di Teti e di Peleo (1639) contains two long dance scenes that involve both solo and choral singing. In Act I, Mercurio summons four groups of spirits to celebrate. The scenario states: [Act I] Scene Seven Mercurio descends from heaven, followed by Momo, who reveals to Peleo the will of Giove. Peleo, not content with exalting the heavenly graces, asks the plants, the stones, the breezes and the waves themselves to express the praises of Giove; Mercurio joins these spirits, who accompany the joy of Peleo with dances in Scene Eight The trees peel back their bark, the rocks open up, and two Dryads and two Oreads come out to dance; then rising from the sea, and flying from the heavens, come two Nereids and two Aure, who together form a ballocantato; at the end each god takes with him a pair of nymphs, and the dance ends ...131 Cavalli's score emphasizes the central role of the dances in this scene, which unites music and dance in an unusually complex and intricate fashion. Mercurio invokes each pair of spirits, exhorting them to dance, and they answer with two stanzas of song. Each of his invitations to dance is set to different music; the first and third are in triple metre, while the second and fourth are in recitative. The stanzas for the spirits are each sung to the same music in a graceful triple metre and are marked as balli.132 For the chorus of all the spirits, Cavalli set the four stanzas of text as a lively duet in duple metre (with two soprano parts left blank) and added the stage direction 'Qui ballano tutte insieme' (Here they all dance together). At the end of the scene, the verses sung by Momo, Meleagro, Mercurio, and Peleo alternate with an instrumental ciaccona,suggesting that this entire section would have been danced for the exit of the spirits. (See Ex. 9.) The other extended dance scene in Le noZZedi Teti e di Peleo is a bacchanalian celebration in Act II, scene 11. The scenario states: 'Bacco and Sileno join with a chorus of fauns and another of Bacchantes; here Bacco and Sileno praise the virtues of wine, and the choruses dance to their melody'.133 Directions in the score suggest that even the end of the scene was danced: 'Ballo sung by Bacco and by Sileno, and answered by the chorus of gods / Danced by fauns and Bacchantes'.134 The length of the scene and variety of music offer the opportunity for a sophisticated choreography to match the changing textures. The music includes several solos, a duet for Sileno and Bacco, two different ritornelli,and a six-voice chorus of gods.

131Breve espositione della festa teatrale, 11. 132 The sameopening stanza of verseis used by each pair,with slightchanges to reflecttheir domains- the woods for the Driads,the rocksfor the Oreads,the sea for the Nereids, and the heavensfor the Aure.Although only a bass line is given,there are blankstaves with clefs for threeupper voices, two sopranoand one alto. 133 'Giungono Bacco e Sileno con un Coro di Fauni & un'altro di Baccanti; qui Bacco, e Silenocommendano la virtiidel vino, & i Coridanzano alla lor melodia.' 134 'Ballo cantato da Bacco e da Sileno e risposto dal Coro degli Dei / Ballato da fauni e da Baccanti.'

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Mercurio

Sii dunque in lie - te e ful - gi- de sem - bian - ze sor - ge - te, 6

L I

Di - ve di fron zu - - te scor - ze, e lo- dan - do d'A - mor l'armi, e le

L J L I

for - ze, ac - comrn- pa- gnate al suon con - cen - ti e dan- ze.

Lf

Ballo di Driadi A-I II

Si6 fes- to - so lie - to spo - so, go- da teco il

no - stro bos - co, non sia fe - ra si se - ve - ra, che non

I I -N.." I,,I-- •-•, , las - si l'ira e'l tos - co. . [librettohas a second strophe]

Mercurio

Figli or di Nin - fe o- gn'in- sen- sa- to sas- so, al sel- vag- gio drap pel Co- ro con cor- de ch'al- la dol-

cez- za di temrn pra- te cor - de, unis-ca il la - bro 6 non dis-codi il pas so.

Ballo di Oreadi [=repeat of Ballo di Driadi]

Ex. 9: Le di Tetie di Peleo(1639), Act I, scene 6 Cod. It IV 365 fols. nozze (I-Vnm, (= 9989), 35'39V). Excerpts.

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Mercurio

Sti fuor de salsi e li - qui- di cris- tal - Ii ven - ganl'on - do se

L J r •

ver - gi- ni stil - lan - ti ch'ar- ti - fi - ciosi ar- ti-co lando i Can - ti

for - min fes- tivi e re-go -la - ti bal - i.

Ballo di Ninfe maritime [=repeat of Ballo di Driadi] Mercurio

E voi fig- lie del Ciel suo-re de Ven- ti Ven- ti la- te leg- gie- re il pie vo- lan- te mi- su- ran-do al

suon le snel- le pian- te cre sce-te al gran Pe leo gio - - - ie e con- ten - ti.

o " I , Ballo di Aure [=repeat of Ballo di Driadi] 'Qui ballano tutte insieme' [The Driadi, Oreadi, Ninfe, and Aure dance together]

San pig- liar sensi et ef - fet - ti per go- der a tuoi con-ten- ti fino i sas - si in- a - ni -

Son fes- tan- ti son ri den- ti per gio- ir a tuoi di - let- ti, fi-no gl'ar- bo - ri in- sen- sa - ti

ma- ti, Son fes -

tan - ti son ri- den- ti per gio - ir a tuoi di - let- ti, fi - no gl'ar- bo - ri in - sen - sa - ti Ex. 9: continued.

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Meleagro - -

Con le ser - ve di fa vo - nio dun - que an - di nan (I) - - - - -

L J

e, A ban - dir ii ma - tri - rmo - nio,

dal mar indo all' on- de ma re. Sas - si,

pian l - - te, et on - - de,et au - - - re

L J Ciaccona I.m

! ,, :,,,a.• F F F.I / .I .1 Ex. 9: continued.

The predominantmetre is triple,with typicalhemiola patterns,and is interruptedby a few sections in duple metre, creating the shifting rhythmic patterns common in late Renaissance balli. In Cavalli's Gli amorid'Apollo e di Dafne (1640), Act I, scene 4 contains choral dance music for nymphs and shepherds that alternateswith a solo aria by Dafne; only the choral music accompanies the ballo,as annotations in the score make clear.135In another instance, the alternationbetween chorus and solo might have been used to comic effect: In Alessandrovincitor di se stesso,there is a ballo for hunchbacks introduced by a solo sung by the stutteringBleso. After beginning in duple metre, Bleso shifts to triple, calling to his companions to join him - which might well have been the cue for the beginning of the dance. The chorus then joins Bleso with music using nearlythe same bass line and the same pattern of hemiolas. In the midst of the dancing,Bleso's comic stutteringis heard, an element that might well have been emphasized in the choreography.(See Ex. 10.)

135 See the facsimile score of Cavalli, Gli amorid'Apollo.

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Winged feet and mute eloquence 269 Momo (2) A lodar belti, che splende, Dunque andianne, Dove il Sole i Campi ascende; Dov'il mar l'acque diffonde, Piante e sassi, et aure et onde. Ciaccona

Mercurio (3) A bandir le regie feste Dunque andianne, Dal paese almo, e celeste Fino ai Regni oscuri, e bassi, Aure, et onde, e piante, e sassi. Ciaccona

Pelio (4) A portar le Gioie mie Dunque andianne, Da i confini ond'esce il die Fino a termini d'Atlante, Onde et aure, e sassi, e pianti. Ciaccona Ex. 9: continued.

In addition, solo arias with instruments or ritornellialso accompanied some balli. The score for L'Argia (1669), for example, indicates that the aria at the end of Act I is for Alceo and a chorus of slaves who dance. The instruments and voices alternate in concertatostyle, and the choreography may have also reflected this alternation. Another such example is Eudemo's aria with instruments 'Compagni correte' in Act I, scene 16 of La cadutadi Elio Seiano(1667). Here, the running eighth notes used in both the vocal and instrumental parts, might have accompanied dance, or the instrumental part may have been extracted and repeated for the ballet. (See Ex. 11.) If a ritornellois to be danced, there will often be an indication in the score. In Cesti's L'Orontea (1666) the ritornelloof Gelone's aria in Act I, scene 13 is marked 'balla' ('he dances'), and the ritornellofor Euridice's aria 'Ninfe danzate' in L'Orfeo (1673), is titled 'Balletto per la Danza' in two of the three scores, although the libretto does not a here. In overo de specify ballo L'amazaone corsare, L'Alvilda regina Goti (1686) an aria and ritornelloin Act I serves for three dances. In scene 6, the aria introduces a fencing lesson which is 'danced' to the ritornello;scene 7 indicates a return to fencing when the ritornellois repeated. The same aria returns later in scene 7 with a new text for Gilda's dancing lesson, and she dances to the vitornello. However, the style seems more suited to the fencing lesson, with repeated quavers and pauses evoking the swordplay.

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Si suo - ni si can - ti si bal - s si si suo - m si

Si so - s ca - ca- ca-

Si suo - ni si can - ti si bal - ii si si si suo- ni si

can - ti si bal - li si si, al - Ile - grie fe - stan - ti pas sia - mo - ci ii

si can - ti bal - li si si al - le - gri e fe - stan - ti pas - sia -mo-ciil

al - le - grie fe - stan - ti pas - sia - mo - ciil di

Ca - C a- Ca- Si

di al - le - grie fe - stan - ti pas - sia - mo - ciil di.

si suo - ni si

suo - ni i ca - ca- ca - i su - ni si

si si - suoni si Ex. 10: Cesti,Alessandro vincitor di se stesso(1651), Act I, scene 12 (I-Rvat,Chigi Q.V.61, fols. 68v-72v).

Arias labelled as introductions to ballidid not necessarilyprovide music for the dance;in fact, many of them seem unsuitablefor balli,but must have been followed by instrumentalmusic that was not copied into the score. The final arias of Acts I and II of L'Orfeo(1673) and those in L'Almericoin Cpro (1675) are also not characteristicof dance music, althoughall of these are clearlymeant to introducethe balli.The inclusion in scores of ariasthat introduce balliis yet anotherindication that the dances were indeed performed and not an optional part of the production. The lengthy dance scenes by Pollarolo from the end of the century extend this principleof alternationbetween chorus, solo voice, and instruments.Many of these scenes consist of linked sections of accompanied arias,choruses, and instrumental music, and the larger structure is built of the alternation of two or three small

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ni - Com- pag- " cor- re - - te

cor-re - te la vec - chia ve - de- te che fmi- ge co-

IF - ri

Ex. 11: La cadutadi Elio Seiano(1667), Act I, scene 16 (I-Vnm, Cod. It IV 397 (= 9921), fol. 31". The continuo part, doubled by the bass throughout much of the example, is omitted. sections. The few independent instrumental pieces for balli are often thematically connected to the vocal music that precedes or follows, and in many scenes the dance clearly continues through both instrumental and vocal sections. Often the entire ensemble of soloists, chorus, and instruments combines for the final section of the dance. This type of choral accompaniment for balli may be seen as evidence of neo-classical trends, French influence, or both.136

136 Ed. note:This type of integratedstructure is typicalof the divertissementsJean-Baptiste Lully composedinto his operas;see RebeccaHarris-Warrick, 'Recovering the Lullian Divertissement',in Danceand Music in FrenchBaroque Theatre: Sources and Interpretations, ed. SarahMcCleave (London, 1998), 55-80.

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Conclusion

The surviving dance music, both vocal and instrumental, represents only a very small portion of the repertoire, but it is clear even from this small sample that Venetian theatrical dance was a thriving art during the seventeenth century. The dazzling array of subjects found in the libretti resulted in equally diverse musical styles, and what would seem to have been a highly athletic and varied style of dance. Unlike the French stage, where social and theatrical dance almost seamlessly merged, the Venetian opera houses presented a style of dance that was entirely the domain of professional dancers and choreographers. The imagination of these artists seems limitless; the dances and choreographers of Venice created a kinaesthetic world that matched the eccentric and highly idiosyncratic nature of the operas themselves. Indeed, this is certainly the sentiment expressed in 1688 by Cristoforo Ivanovich, who saw the developing opera industry as a reflection of the Republic's own increasing perfection: From here it arose that Carnivalbecame rathermore amazing than it was in the past, each year all types and a considerablequantity of strangersconverging to enjoy such a delightful entertainment,and seeing the most sublime talents embodied in a virtuoso, the same in poetry as in music, the most exquisite voices of men and women chosen, and the most extraordinarycreations found in costumes, sets, machines, 'flights', and balli.137 While we may not be able to re-create Ivanovich's experience in the Venetian opera theatres, it is indeed time for historians and opera producers to acknowledge that the balli were an integral element in the spectacle that was Venetian opera. Tragedy and comedy, pathos and satire - expressed through a dazzling array of subjects in the hundreds of operas produced in this period - not only found expression through the singing voice, but also through the mute eloquence of the many dancers who graced the Venetian opera stage.

Appendix Theatre abbreviations used in tables SC S. Cassiano Nov Novissimo SSGP SS. Giovanni e Paolo SSAp SS. Apostoli SM S. Moise SApol S. Apollinare SSalv S. Salvatore (S. Luca) aiSal ai Saloni SAng S. Angelo Cr Cannaregio SGG S. Giovanni Grisostomo SF S. Fantino (which took over the 1699 production from Cr).

137Cristoforo Ivanovich, Minerva al tavolino,392.

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Table 1. Venetian theatres: number of balli per opera

Year SC SSGP SM SSalv SAng SGG Nov SSAp SApol aiSal Cr 1637 3 1638 3 1639 4 2-0 1640 3 2*-1* 0-0 1641 1 4*-1* 2 2 1642 1 1-0 3*-3 0-1 1643 0 0-2 3 1644 0 0-4* 2 1645 0-0 0-2 0 1646 - 1647 - 2 (May) - 1648 0 2 0 1649 2 0 2 0 1650 3 2 0 1651 0 2 0 0-2 1652 - 4 -0 2-2 1653 - 0-2 - - 0 1654 - 2-2 2 0 1655 - 1 -- 2 1656 - 2 2 1657 - - - 2 1658 2 2 - 2 1659 3 2 1660 2 2-2 - 2 1661 - 2-2 1-2 1662 - 1-2 2 1663 - 2-2 2 1664 - 2-3 2 1665 3-2 2 1666 2-2 2-2 2-2 2-3 1667 - 2-2 2 2-2 1668 - 2-2 - 2-2 1669 3-2 - 2 1670 - 2-2 2-0 2 1671 - 2-2-2 2-2 2 1672 - 2-2 - 2-2 1673 - 2 3 2-2 1674 2-2 2 1675 - 2-2 2 2-2 2 1676 - 3 2-2 2-3 1677 - 3-2 2-2 2-2 2 1678 - 3-2 2-2 2-2-2 3 1679 - 2 3-2 2-2 2 0 1680 2-2 2 2P 3 2 3-3 1 1681 - 2-? 1p 2 2-5 3-2 1682 - 0-? OP-2p 0-1 3-2 ?-3 - 1683 0-1 4-2-2 - 1-2 2-1 3 2-1 1684 - 1 2-2 1-0 3-2 1685 - 2 0-2 2-0 2-0-3 0 1686 - 2-3 1-2 0-0 1-0 6 - 1687 - 2 2-2 0 2-2 3-3 - - - 1688 - 0-3 2-1 1 2 3-2 0 1689 - 4 2-3 2-2 2 3 1690 - 3 - 2 2 3 2 1691 2-0 2-0 1-2 2-2 2-2 1692 - 2-0-2 - 0-3 - 1-3 1693 - 3-3 2 3 0-2 3 1694 - - 2 3-6 3-2 5* - 1695 - 2 - 4 2-2 2*-5*

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Table 1. continued

Year SC SSGP SM SSalv SAng SGG Nov SSAp SApol aiSal Cr

1696 2-4 2-2-3 5-1* 3-3 5*-4* 1697 2-2 3-0-2 4*-3-2 2-2 1-1 1698 4-3 3 - 2-2 3-1 1699 2-2-0 3-2 2-3-3 2 3-2 1700 2-3-3 1-? 2-2 2 Cr-SF

This table indicatesall operas performedin Venice, by season and theatre,according to how many ballithey contain. Thus a season that offered3 operas,the firstcontaining 2 balli,the second none, and the third2, would be listed as 2-0-2. A season with a single opera containing3 balliis listed as 3; if the single operaperformed had no balli,it is listed as 0.

-Indicates that a theatredid not presentoperas that season. ? Means balliwere indicated,but their numberand location was not specified. *Indicatesfive-act operas. "Indicatespuppet operas.

Years indicate the carnivalseason; autumnproductions are counted with the following carnival.Thus an opera that opened in November 1678 is listed under 1679.

Table 2. Frequency of balli: percentages by decade

Years Number of operas Operaswith balli Percentage

1637-1640 10 7 70% 1641-1650 36 21 58.3% 1651-1660 30 23 76.7% 1661-1670 41 40 97.6% 1671-1680 59 58 98.3% 1681-1690 85 70 82.3% 1691-1700 85 78 91.8%

Total 1637-1700 346 297 85.8%

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Year Theatre Opera Composer Ballolocation Ballotitle Texture Meter/Measures 11 1639 SC Le di Tetie di Peleo Cavalli end of Act I Corrente Grave Tr; B [S;A; T blank] eg 3 6 :: nozze Corrente Grave eg 3: :6:: C 5 1639 SC Le di Tetie di Peleo Cavalli Act II scene 7 Ballo [di Coro di Centauri] 2Tr; B CQ4 :1:8:8 nozge end of Corrente B [2Tr;A; T blank] C45 : : 6 : c 8 1639 SC Le nozzedi Tetie di Peleo Cavalli Act II 3 :|: 1640 SC Gli amorid'Apollo e di Cavalli Prologue Ballo de fantasmi 2S; A; T; B c 5: Dafne B e 8 1640 SC Gli amorid'Apollo e di Cavalli Act I scene 2 Corrente 2Tr; :: 8: Dafne 6 1 1642 SC La virtdde' strali d'amore Cavalli end of Act I Ballo delle Maghe [Ballodi Tr; B [S;A; T blank] 16l varii spiriti] 1654 SSGP Xerse Cavalli end of Act I Ballo [Combattimento] B 09 : : 4 [3] 5 3 : : 14 ? • 1654 SSGP Xerse Cavalli end of Act II Entrata2" / Balletto B c 12 12 I 12 12 [Combattimento] [ 9 1654 SSGP Xerse Cavalli end of Act II Ballo 2d [Combattimento] B C 9 :j: :9 in P.A. Ziani end of Act II Balletto 2Tr; B c 8 :: 12 :I 1661 SSGP L'Annibal Capua 9 1663 SSalv La Dosi Cesti end of Act I Ballo d'Eunuchi 2Tr; B e I 2 Sinfonia de' 2Tr; A; T; B 15 1664 SSGP Scpioneafricano Cavalli Act scene [Gioco e Gladiatori] C 13 :10 1666 SM II Demetrio Pallavicino end of Act I Giga [Restanoli paggi 2Tr; B : insolenti, e formanoil ballo] B c 3 : : 3 : 3 : : 3 1666 SSalv PompeoMagno Cavalli Act I scene 1 Balletto de Cavalli[Ballo di 2Tr;A; T; :4 :fl: Quattro cavallinaturali vivi] 1 3:11 end of I il Ballo di 8 2Tr; A; T; B C 5 7 18 1666 SSalv PompeoMagno Cavalli Act Segue impazziti: :1: :1 2 per la musica;2 per la C 10 :: 9 :: 4 : :4 pittura;2 per alchimia;2 per la poesia / Ballettode Pazzi di B 5 6 1666 SSalv PompeoMagno Cavalli end of Act II Ballo di Fantasme[Ballo 2S; A; T; c I )I 5 I 12 Ombre] 5 Ballo Giardinierie 2Tr; A; 3 16 1668 SSGP Eliogabalo Boretti Act II scene [Burlatri B I Buffoni di Corte] 22 1669 SSGP II Genserico Partenio end of Act II [Ballo] B [2Trblank] 3 1 Cesti 20 di 2Tr; A; T; B 10 1669 SSalv L'Argia Act II scene [Ballo Fantasmi] e I I Ballo Pastorellee di B 4 5 1670 SSGP L'Antgonadelusa d'Alceste P.A. Ziani end of Act [di :1 Cacciatori] 8

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Year Theatre Opera Composer Ballolocation Ba//llotitle Texture Meter/Measures

1670 SSGP L'Antigonade/usa d'l/ceste P.A. Ziani end of Act 11 Gighe [Ballod'Artegiani] B 5 :|: 8 1671 SSalv L'Ercolein 7Tbe Boretti Act II scene 19 Qui si fa il ballo / Ritornello B c 6 6 [Ballodi Eroi] 1673 SSalv Orfeo Sartorio Act I scene 1 Ritornello[A-Wn: Balletto 2Tr; 2A; B c 8 I per la Danza] 1674 SM La M.A. Ziani end of Act I Ballo [di Guerrieri] B 3 3 :):c 2 :H:3 :H:3 7 : schiava.f/rtunata 1674 SM La schiavafoirtunata M.A. Ziani end of Act II Ballo [di Naiadi, ch'escono B c 5 :H1:presto 3 alleg 8 : dal Tigri] si replicaI'alleg. 1675 SSGP Diocletiano Pallavicino end of Act I Ballo de Paggi e de Pazzi Tr; B [c] 2 :JK:2 : si replica3 volte dopio 1675 SSGP Diocletiano Pallavicino end of Act 11 Ballo de Persiani[Stuolo di Tr; B 3 4 :11:e 2 3 2 :11 persianiprigionieri con le si replica3 volte doppio catene al piede] 1676 SSalv Germanicosul Reno Legrenzi end of Act I Baletto [Ballodi Soldati 2Tr; B c 4 :11:4 | Belgici] 1676 SSalv Germanicosul Reno Legrenzi Act II scene 8 Balettodi combatim.[gioco] 2Tr; B C 5 H:4 : 1676 SSalv Germanicosul Reno Legrenzi end of Act II Balletto [Ballodi Fantasmie 2Tr; B C 7 :H:7 : Spiriti] 1678 SGG II tVespesiano Pallavicino finale [Ballodi Muse in terra,di 2Tr; A; B c 3 :||: 3 : Ninfe in acqua,e d'Amorini in aria] 1680 SGG II Vespasiano Pallavicino finale Ballo [di Personaggiche 2Tr; B C 4 :1H:4 : figuranola Terra,Acqua, Aria ed il Foco] 1680 SC Candaule P.A. Ziani Act II scene 18 Balletto [Ballodi Ninfe] 2Tr;A; B C 2 H:4 :: 4:H:8 (I-Vnm) 1680 SC Candaule P.A. Ziani Act II scene 18 Ballo per il Cigno [Ballodi B C 4 :: :55 (D-AN) Ninfe] 1680 SSGP L'Alcibiade M.A. Ziani end of Act II Ballo [di ScultoriDiscepoli di 2Tr;B e 3 :1H:3 : Prassitele] 1680 SGG Il rattodelle Sabine Augustini end of Act II Ballo [di dodeci Romani B C 6 :|: 8 :1 Rattori] 1681 SA PompeoMagno in Cilicia Freschi end of Act I Ballo [di quattroMori e B c 3 :1H:8 || quattroNani Spagnoli]

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Year Theatre Opera Composer Ballolocation Ballotitle Texture Meter/Measures

1681 SA PompeoMagno in Cilicia Freschi end of Act II Ballo [di quattroPaggi al B c 5 [5 i 6 :)(:7 levar d'unaMensa Reale] 1685 SM Rodoaldore d'Italia Gabrielli end of Act I Ballo B 3 9 8 : 1685 SM Rodoaldore d'Italia Gabrielli end of Act II B1llo d'Armi B 6 :":7 1685 SM Clearcoin Negroponte Gabrielli end of Act I Ballo [di Pittor in forma B 5 ::33 3 d'Academia] 1685 SM Clearcoin Negroponte Gabrielli end of Act II Ballo [di Soldaticoronati B c 7 : d'Ulivo] 1686 SSGP L'amazzonecorsara, overo Pallavicino Act I scene 12 and Sonatacon tromba [Ballodi 2Tr;A; 2B 3 8 :1:8 : L'Alvildaregina de Goti scene 15 Popolo Festante;varij giochi a suono di Trombe] 1686 SSalv Le generosegare tra Cesaree Gabrielli end of Act II Ballo B 4 Largo 24 Pompeo c Allegro 8 I 7 I 1689 SGG Amulioe Numitore Tosi end of Act I Ballo [d'Amoriniin aria,di 2Tr;A; T; B 4 :: 4 :: 2 : Ninfe in terra,e di Mostri nel mare] 1689 SGG Amulioe Numitore Tosi Act III scene 3 Ballo di Paggi 2Tr; A; T; B 4 :|: 4 :1 1689 SGG Amulioe Numitore Tosi Act III scene 3 Ballo d'altriPaggi e Damigelle 2Tr; A; B 4 :1:4 : 1689 SGG Amulioe Numitore Tosi Act III scene 3 Danza di Dame e Cavalieri 2Tr;A; B C 8 I 1689 SGG Amulioe Numitore Tosi finale 'Ballo' [Grandanzadi Dame e 2Tr; A; B C 4 :: 6 : : 2 :|: 4 Cavaglieri] 1692 SSalv FurioCamillo Perti Act II scene 1 Ballo [di Alfieri] B c 4 1693 SSalv NeronefattoCesare Perti Act III scene 1 Boria / segue il Balletto 2Tr; A; B c 13 || 10 doppo il quale si replicala Boria 1693 SSalv NeronefattoCesare Perti Act III scene 16 Rigadon [Ballo] Tr; A; B C 4 :: 4 :: 8 1693 SGG dellavirt~i Pollarolo Act II scene 5 Introduttioneal Ballo/Ballo Tr; A; T; B C :99 : :5 C 4 : : 4: Laforza Sinfonia Tr (oboe e violini unis.); 9 :| : 5 [Ballodi Greci e d'Amazoni] A; T; B 2Tr;A; B ej 6 :1 9:1 1693 SGG Laforga dellavirtsi Pollarolo Act II scene 14 Ballo / Ciaccona[Ballo di 2Tr (Oboes); Tr (Violini 3 33 : Dame e CavalieriSpagnoli] unisoni);A (Violette); B 1694 SSalv Alfonsoprimo Pollarolo Act I scene 2 Sinfonia [Ballodi Amorini] 2Tr; A; T; B c 33 15 | :: 1694 SSalv Alfonsoprimo Pollarolo before Act II [Danza] [Ballodi Araldi 2Tr;A; T; B C 3 5:11 dell'Alba]

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Year Theatre Opera Composer Ballolocation Ba//llotitle Texture Meter /Measures 1639 SC Le di Tetie di nozze Peleo Cavalli Act I scene 6 Ballo di Driadi B jS;S;Ablank] ec 10 Ballo di ()readi cQ 10 di Ninfe Ballo Maritime eq 10 Ballo di Aure ec 10 Qui Ballanotutte insieme A; T [2S blank] c 12 Ciaccona A;B / T;B e 4 :: 8 3 4 :: 8 3 4 : 1: 8 3 4 :1:8 I 3 1639 SC Le noszedi Tetie di Peleo Cavalli Act II scene 11 Ballo cantatoda Bacco e da B;B / T;B ec 10 Silenot,e risposto dal Coro 2Tr;B(rit.) T;B;B 5 1 c 18 degli Dei; Ballatoda fauni e 2Tr;B(rit.) 5 da Baccanti B;B c 7 33c4 5 | e 8 2S; A;2T;B 1639 Le di Tetie di Cavalli Act III 9 nozze Peleo scene Coro d'Amorini 2S; A;B [2 Tr blank] C 4 • 10 Venere [Ballodi Coro S;B (Venere) c 4 4 10 | d'Amoretti] 1640 SC Gli amori e di Cavalli Act I scene 4 d'Apollo Choro [Ballodi Ninfe e S; A;T; 2B c~ 18 7 Dafne Pastorelli] 1649 SC Cavalli Act I scene 14 Giasone Choro di spiritA 4 [Ballodi A; 2T; B Ce 30 spiriti] 1651 SSGP Alessandrovincitor di se stesso Cesti Act I scene 12 Bleso; [Choro]A 4 [Ballode' T; B 3 17 | 25 | 17 25 | Gobbi Discepoli d'Apelle] S; A; T; 2B 1659 SC Elena Cavalli Act I scene 16 Cacciatori A; 2T; B 3 5 Ballo con gl'Orsi [Li A; 2T; 2B 3 8 || Cacciatoriprendono gl'Orsi e ballano] 1662 SSGP Lefatiched'Ercole per P.A. Ziani Act II scene 22 Allegrezza;Armonia; Diletto 2S; 2B c 2 3 9 Deianira [Ballodi SpiritiBeati] 1665 SSGP Cavalli I Ciro Act scene 17 Fatama;Choro [Ballodi Mori A; B / B; B 3 5 | I44 c 5 Etioppi] 1666 SSGP Orontea Cesti Act I scene 13 Gelone solo voice B c 2 3 20 | 2Tr; B (rit.) 3 12 1666 SSalv Seleuco Sartorio Act II scene 18 Festa di ballo [Ballodi Dame solo voice (var. e 58 e Cavallieri] roles)+ 2Tr;A; B 1667 SSalv La cadutadi Elio Seiano Sartorio Act I scene 16 Eudemo [Giardinierie Paggi solo voice S+2Tr; A; B 3 26 | fanno un Ballo]

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Year Theatre Opera Composer Ballolocation Ballotitle Texture Meter / Measures

1669 SSalv L'Argia Cesti Act I scene 16 Alceo; Choro di Schiaviche solo voice S+ 2Tr;T; A; g50 | ballano [Ballodi Schiavi] 2B 1671 aiSal Iphidegreca Partenio Act I scene 12 Choro di Popolo; Ligdo; S; A; T; 2B (chorus, some 6 22 1 Teletusia;Iphide [Giuochi solos and duets) d'Armiin forma di Ballo] 1673 SSalv Massenzio Sartorio Act II scene 26 Choro de Marinariche fanno solo voice A 3 31 7 il ballo [Ballodi Marinari 2Tr; A; T; B (rit) Africani] 1676 SSGP Galieno Pallavicino Act I scene 2-6 [Danza di Galieno e Fulvia, solo voice S+2Tr; B c 8 6 6 4 2 c 4 Cavalierie Dame] 8 6 | 6 c 4 c 4| 8 3 1679 SSGP AlessandroMagno in Sidone M.A. Ziani Act II scene 4 Alessandro;Eusonia [Danza] T; B 18 | 8 2Tr; B (rit.) S; B 316 8 2 1680 SGG 1Pratto delle Sabine Augustini Act 1 scene 21 ritornello[Ballo] 2Tr; A; B 6 aria solo voice S 1 17 1681 SA PompeoMagno in Cilicia Freschi Act I scene 1 Ballo B c 6 : |: 8 Alimene;Gemmira solo voice S+2Tr; A; B c 40 [Ballo... Danza] 4 1682 SA Olimpiavendicata Freschi Act III scene 15 [Danza] voices 3S; A+ 2Tr; A; B e 20 | 1683 SSalv Giustino Legrenzi Act I scene 15 Allegrezza[in machinaguida'l solo voice S c 30 1 Ballo de Cavalierie Dame] + 2Tr;A; T; B 1685 SM MassimoPuppieno Pallavicino Act III scene 2 [Ballodi seguaci S; B 3 4 : |: 8 : 16 4: : 8 : dell'Allegrezza] 2Tr; A; B (rit) 16 :4 :: 8 1686 SSGP L'amazzonecorsara, overo Pallavicino Act I scene 6 Olmiro 'Con la scherma' S; B e 9 da capo L'Alvildaregina de Goti Act I scene 7 Giocano di spada 2Tr;A; T; B c 9 I Act I scene 7 Novo giocano di spada/ B (5 m of bass line given as ritornellout supra S; B cue) Gilde 'Con la danza' (aria to c 9 Ida capo same music) 1692 SSalv FurioCamillo Perti finale [Ballo figurato] solo voice S+2Tr (trom.); 8 : : 8 :): 8: 2 Tr (violini); B 1692 SGG Onorioin Roma Pollarolo Act II scene 9 Tutto il concerto [Ballodi voices S; A+2Tr; A; T; c 3 :||: 3 16 da capo :"|: Dame e Cavalieri] 2B 3 1692 SGG Onorioin Roma Pollarolo finale Segue il Ballo subito voices 2S; 2A; B+2Tr; A; 121 I intrecciatodal Canto di tutte T; B le parte [Ballodi Soggettidi Corte per la gran Danza Francese]

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Table 4. continued

Year Theatre Opera Composer Ballo location Ba//o title Texture Meter / Measures

1693 SGG della Laforga virti Pollarolo finale duct and Ballo [di Ninfe e voices S; B+2Tr (violini e 45 | Fiumi seguaci del Tago] et oboi); A; T; B 1695 SGG Ilpastore d'An/iso Pollarolo Primo intramezzo [Ninfe che suonano, cantono, voice S+2Tr; A; B 8 2 : : 2 2 : 2 e ballanol 2 :: 2 :: 2 ::2 : 4 : 4 :: 4 : 4 :: 4: 4 : 1689 SGG Ilpastore d'An/riso Pollarolo Secondo intramezzo [Satiri c Cacciatori che voices 2A; B+2Tr; A; B C 25 | 18 : suonano, cantono, e ballano] 1695 SGG d'An/isos Pollarolo Terzo intramezzo c Zeffiri che suonano, voices 2S; 2A+2Tr c 4 : : 5 : : 4 : : 10 Ilpastore [Aure cantono,, e ballano] (flauti); A; B 8 6 :: C 4 C 4 :: : 1695 SGG Ilpastore d'Anriso Pollarolo Quatro intramezzo [Ninfe c Pastori che suonano, voices 3S; A; B+2Tr; A; 3 10 : : 25 |: 8 : :8 : cantono, e ballano] B 0 12 i 12 : : 12 : 1695 SGG Pollarolo Ipastore d'Anjiso Ultimo intramczzo [Sogni e Fantasme che voice S+2Tr; A; B c 7 13 29 [end ,f suonano, cantono, e ballano] score is missing] 1696 SGG Rosimonda Pollarolo Act I scene 1 [Gran Ballo] voices 2S; A; T; B+2Tr; e 16 | 16 16 16 A;T;B 8 20 20 I8:: 16 : c 14 1696 SGG Rosimonda Pollarolo Act I scene 8 Coro di Damigelle, Coro di voices S; A; T; B+2Tr; A; 6 :: 12 12 Cavalieri d'Alsuinda T; B 8 :: 8 :| 26 1696 SGG Rosimonda Pollarolo Act II scene 8 Coro di Giardinieri Uomini e voices S; A; T; B+2Tr; A; C 19 8 : : 8 : : 8 Donne Cantano e Ballano T; B 8 : : 8 :: 8 1696 SGG III 3 Rosimonda Pollarolo Act scene 7 Coro di Cavalieri e di voices S; A; T; B +2Tr; A; 42 : donzelle che esprimono T; B l'afflizione per la morte del R& 1696 SGG Rosimonda Pollarolo Act IV scene 8 Coro di Uomini e Donne che voices S+2Tr; A; T; B c 4 : : 4 :||: 4:1: 4 : : 4 : fanno voti per la salvezza del 4 :? 3 20 Regno 1699 SSalv Faramondo Pollarolo finale Coro [I seguaci della Virtu voices 3S; 2A; B+2Tr; A; c 8 : : 4 : accompagnano il canto del B Coro col Ballo] 1700 SGG I1 colorefi la regina Pollarolo Act II scene 7 Ballo Tutti Gl'Istromenti [di voices 2S; 2A; T+2Tr ] 4 : : 5 Baccanti] (oboi); A; B 9 :: 4 5 : 11

This content downloaded from 128.112.200.107 on Fri, 05 Jun 2015 15:05:41 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions